live steam
1
7.9
- noun
- /laɪv stim/
- Specialized
:
vapor vivo
- The engineer adjusted the controls to release live steam into the engine, powering it forward.
Examples
-
Dad loved trains, especially live steam.
Blog text (28) -
"He didn't try to talk over the shriek of live steam."
Fiction book (2000) -
Electroshock was the most scientific; the rest were crude: acetylene torches, live steam.
Fiction book (1992) -
Andy Saez said it has taken him years to lay by hand the 4,000 feet of track for his live steam railroad, which encompasses his garden.
Blog text (28) -
Mrs. Viola Sievers, one of the wipers at the roundhouse, is giving a giant "H" class locomotive a bath of live steam.
Blog text (34) -
For his new model railway, he invested in a live steam locomotive that operates just like the real ones.
-
The demonstration showcased how live steam can be used effectively in various industrial machines.
How Pressured
- Specialized
1
7.9
342
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a straightforward adjective + noun composition: 'live' (active, in operation) modifies 'steam', so a learner who knows both words can infer it means steam coming directly from a working boiler (i.e., active or pressurised steam). The construction follows normal compositional patterns and is cross-linguistically recognizable, so the core meaning is immediately derivable even if technical details about pressure may require domain knowledge.
Etymology
The noun live steam comes from the image of steam that is still live — that is, 'active' and under 'full pressure' — coming straight from a boiler. So, live steam means steam used at full pressure, ready to power engines or machines.