live steam
Americannoun
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steam direct from the boiler and at full pressure, ready for use in work.
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steam that has performed no work or only part of its work.
noun
Etymology
Origin of live steam
An Americanism dating back to 1870–75
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Workman Dave Kirkwood sprays live steam rocks at the harbor at Santa Barbara breakwater to clear oil smears.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 6, 2025
Huge projectors show a live steam from mission control.
From Washington Post • Feb. 18, 2021
At the top of his form Critic DeVoto suggested a geyser ejecting a column of live steam, accompanied by deep, sometimes rather incoherent rumblings, hisses, falling rocks, lava, fuliginous fumes.
From Time Magazine Archive
To avoid adulteration they worked in glass cages, sterilized each morning by live steam and ventilated all day by sterile, conditioned air.
From Time Magazine Archive
The shrieking brakes set, and live steam singed our bare feet.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
