a pleasant-smelling colourless volatile liquid that is highly flammable. It is used as an anaesthetic and as a solvent or intermediate in industrial processes

the clear sky; the upper regions of air beyond the clouds

nasty gases and smoke disperse into the ether

a very rarefied and highly elastic substance formerly believed to permeate all space, including the interstices between the particles of matter, and to be the medium whose vibrations constituted light and other electromagnetic radiation

the motion of the planets would be retarded by the ether through which they moved