MEANING
1. To express intense anger, often by brooding or speaking heatedly about an offense.
2. To give off smoke, vapor, or another visible or noxious substance.
Use it for
Show sustained anger or vapor emission.Conveys anger as a sustained state, while its literal vapor sense supports sensory imagery.
Words that belong together
- fume over an insult
- fume with anger
- fume silently
- fume from a vent
On the page
He fumed over the canceled trip, pacing the kitchen until midnight.
A thin plume fumed from the cracked vent.
Nearby words
Opposite meanings
Word forms
- Base
- fume
- Past tense
- fumed
- Past participle
- fumed
- Present participle
- fuming
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- fume
- Present continuous
- am/is/are fuming
- Present perfect
- have/has fumed
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been fuming
- Past
- fumed
- Past continuous
- was/were fuming
- Past perfect
- had fumed
- Past perfect continuous
- had been fuming
- Future
- will fume
- Future continuous
- will be fuming
- Future perfect
- will have fumed
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been fuming
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
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Usage notes
Often takes “over/about” an offense or “with” anger; the emotional sense suggests sustained, contained anger rather than a brief flash. Sense 2: Literal use describes a substance giving off vapor; distinguish it from the anger construction “fume over/about.”
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