vapor lock

noun

1. an obstruction to the flow of fuel to a gasoline engine, caused by the formation of bubbles in the gasoline as a result of overheating.

Example Sentences

It's like a vapor lock for his brain.

From Salon

Watching this latest incidence of Johnsonian vapor lock, a couple of thoughts came to mind:

From Salon

It creates a massive vapor lock, as it were, in mammalian fuel lines: The body is prevented from turning what it eats into a source of usable energy.

From Literature

When faced with such an oversupply of choice, our little lizard brains go straight to vapor lock.

From Time

It's something more pernicious: the vapor lock that seems to have seized Toyota's mythologized corporate culture and turned one of the most admired companies in the world into a bunch of flailing gearheads.

From Time