Definition of: exhaust

(ig·zôst′) v.t.
1. To make tired; wear out completely.
2. To drain of resources, strength, etc.; use up.
3. To draw off, as gas, steam, etc., from or as from a container.
4. To empty (a container) of contents; drain.
5. To study, treat of, or develop thoroughly and completely: to exhaust a subject.
6. In pharmacy, to remove the essential principles of by means of a solvent, thus leaving an inert remainder.
—v.i.
7. To pass out as the exhaust: The steam exhausts from the pipe. See synonyms under ABSORB.
—noun
1. The fluid discharged or escaping from the cylinder of a steam engine after expansion.
2. The formation of air currents by creating a partial vacuum.
3. The device used in flour mills to conduct dust particles away by means of air currents.
4. The escape of the waste gases from the cylinders of an internal–combustion engine; also, more loosely, the muffler which regulates this escape.
5. Foul air escaping from an apartment by a special register or pipe.
6. Emission. [<L exhaustus, pp. of exhaurire <ex- out + haurire draw]
—ex·haust′er noun
—ex·haust′i·bil′i·ty noun
—ex·haust′·i·ble adjective