Translation guide
The English word 'steaming' can describe cooking with steam, emitting vapor, or feeling very hot. This guide covers natural Japanese expressions for each meaning.
To cook food using steam, as in steaming vegetables or buns.
To give off steam, as from a hot drink, bath, or engine.
Literally 'to raise steam', used for hot food, drinks, or baths.
To feel extremely hot, as in sweltering heat or after exercise.
The verb 蒸す (musu) is only for cooking. To say 'I'm steaming' (feeling hot), use expressions like 暑くてたまらない or 汗だく. Using 蒸す for a person sounds like you are being cooked.
I steam vegetables.
Please steam the pork buns.
Refers to steamed dishes or steaming as a cooking method.
Steamed dishes are healthy.
A steamer (the utensil).
I make shumai in a steamer.
The coffee is steaming.
The bath is steaming.
More literal 'to emit steam', often for machines.
The locomotive is steaming.
Intransitive: steam rises. Describes the state.
Steam is rising from the pot.
Hot and humid, muggy. Used for weather.
It's steaming hot today.
So hot I can't stand it. General intense heat.
It's steaming hot outside.
To become drenched in sweat, often implying steaming from heat/exertion.
I got steaming hot and sweaty from exercise.