moisture

From Middle English moisture, from Old French moistour (“moisture, dampness, wetness”). Compare French moiteur.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmɔɪs.t͡ʃə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɔɪs.t͡ʃɚ/

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• Rhymes: -ɔɪstʃə(ɹ)

moisture (usually uncountable, plural moistures)

1. That which moistens or makes damp or wet; exuding fluid; liquid in small quantity.

   drops / beads of moisture

   • c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

     I cannot weep; for all my body’s moisture
     Scarce serves to quench my furnace-burning heart:

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 8:6:

     And some [seed] fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture.

   • 1838 March – 1839 October, Charles Dickens, chapter 7, in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1839, →OCLC:

     […] Nicholas Nickleby’s eyes were dimmed with a moisture that might have been taken for tears.

   • 1897, Bram Stoker, chapter 3, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC, page 39:

     […] as she arched her neck she actually licked her lips like an animal, till I could see in the moonlight the moisture shining on the scarlet lips and on the red tongue as it lapped the white sharp teeth.

   • 1962, Rachel Carson, chapter 6, in Silent Spring‎, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 65:

     The sage—low-growing and shrubby—could hold its place on the mountain slopes and on the plains, and within its small gray leaves it could hold moisture enough to defy the thieving winds.

2. The state of being moist.

   Synonyms: dampness, humidity, moistness, wetness

   • 1631, Francis [Bacon], “IV. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], page 84, →OCLC:

     […] all Exclusion of Open Aire, (which is euer Predatory) maintaineth the Body in his first Freshnesse, and Moisture:

   • 1643, John Denham, Coopers Hill‎, page 7:

     Such was the discord, which did first disperse
     Forme, order, beauty through the universe;
     While drynesse moisture, coldnesse heat resists,
     All that we have, and that we are subsists:

   • 1794, Erasmus Darwin, Zoonomia‎, London: J. Johnson, Volume 1, Section 7, I.1, p. 39:

     [The organs of touch are excited] by the unceasing variations of the heat, moisture, and pressure of the atmosphere;

3. (medicine) Skin moisture noted as dry, moist, clammy, or diaphoretic as part of the skin signs assessment.

• weakiness

• misroute

• moistere, mostowre, moyster, moystur, moysture, moystyr

Borrowed from Old French moistour; equivalent to moiste +‎ -ure.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɔi̯stiu̯r(ə)/, /ˈmɔi̯stur(ə)/, /ˈmɔi̯stər(ə)/

moisture

1. moistness, wetness
2. moisture, humidity
3. fluid, secretion
4. (figurative) Something invigorating.

• Used as a technical term in alchemy and medicine.

• moistnesse

• English: moisture

• “moistūr(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.