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Fume vs Freebase - What's the difference?

fume | freebase |

As nouns the difference between fume and freebase

is that fume is a gas or vapour/vapor that smells strongly or is dangerous to inhale. Fumes are solid particles formed by condensation from the gaseous state, e.g. metal oxides from volatilized metals. They can flocculate and coalesce. Their particle size is between 0.1 and 1 micron. (A micron is one millionth of a metre while freebase is the purified, dry form of an amine, especially an alkaloid natural product, that is normally used in solution.

As verbs the difference between fume and freebase

is that fume is to emit fumes while freebase is to purify a drug by crystallization.

fume

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A gas or vapour/vapor that smells strongly or is dangerous to inhale. Fumes are solid particles formed by condensation from the gaseous state, e.g. metal oxides from volatilized metals. They can flocculate and coalesce. Their particle size is between 0.1 and 1 micron. (A micron is one millionth of a metre)
  • Don't stand around in there breathing the fumes while the adhesive cures.
  • * T. Warton
  • the fumes of new shorn hay
  • A material that has been vaporized from the solid state to the gas state and re-coalesced to the solid state.
  • Rage or excitement which deprives the mind of self-control.
  • the fumes of passion
    (South)
  • Anything unsubstantial or airy; idle conceit; vain imagination.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • a show of fumes and fancies
  • The incense of praise; inordinate flattery.
  • * Burton
  • to smother him with fumes and eulogies

    Verb

    (fum)
  • To emit fumes.
  • * Milton
  • where the golden altar fumed
  • * Roscommon
  • Silenus lay, / Whose constant cups lay fuming to his brain.
  • To expose something (especially wood) to ammonia fumes in order to produce dark tints.
  • To feel or express great anger.
  • He's still fuming about the argument they had yesterday.
  • * Dryden
  • He frets, he fumes , he stares, he stamps the ground.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
  • Her mother did fret, and her father did fume .
  • To be as in a mist; to be dulled and stupefied.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Keep his brain fuming .
  • To pass off in fumes or vapours.
  • * Cheyne
  • Their parts are kept from fuming away by their fixity.

    Usage notes

    * In the sense of strong-smelling or dangerous vapor, the noun is typically plural, as in the example. ----

    freebase

    English

    (Free base)

    Alternative forms

    * free base

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (chemistry) The purified, dry form of an amine, especially an alkaloid natural product, that is normally used in solution.
  • * 1987 , Richard Seymour, David Elvin Smith, The Physician's Guide to Psychoactive Drugs , page 75,
  • The freebase' is heated in a retort, foil, or other container and the vapor is inhaled as the ' freebase vaporizes.
  • * 2002 , Edith Fairman Cooper, The Emergence of Crack Cocaine Abuse , page 18,
  • On June 9, 1980, national attention was brought to cocaine freebasing when comedian Richard Pryor suffered third degree burns allegedly while using a butane torch to heat cocaine freebase he had prepared with ether.
  • * 2007 , Jared Ledgard, A Laboratory History of Narcotics , Volume 1: Amphetamines and Derivatives, page 108,
  • Note: this freebase methedrine will actually be a mixture of the DL and L-forms, from which the L-form is the most common used in the preparation of methamphetamine.
  • (specifically) The purified, dry form of certain illegal drugs, especially cocaine.
  • * 2011 , Manuel Suarez, To Be Or Not to Be a Real Cop , page 72,
  • That day, I gave a class on making and using freebase'. This was one thing that was to be done perfectly, or you could end up with glass and ' freebase all over you.

    Verb

    (freebas)
  • To purify a drug by crystallization.
  • To use a purified drug, especially cocaine, by heating it and inhaling the fumes produced.
  • * 2009 , Mackenzie Phillips, High On Arrival , page 82,
  • Richard, one of my friends in L.A., claimed to have invented freebasing — smoking cocaine in its base form—though it's likely that what he meant was that he introduced a whole bunch of people to the process.
  • * 2010 , George Case, Out of Our Heads: Rock 'n' Roll Before the Drugs Wore Off , page 169,
  • With his nostrils ravaged, Crosby turned to drinking Cocaine mixed in glasses of wine, then took to smoking it by the novel technique of freebasing , where the drug is distilled down to its purest form through a process of filtration using ammonia and ether.
  • * 2013 , John Markert, Hooked in Film: Substance Abuse on the Big Screen , page 159,
  • Roger Ebert pretty much agrees with Siskel's dismissive attitude toward the film, saying he only watched it because it was about freebasing cocaine and he wanted to see that, since he had heard so much about it.