disappearance
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dis·ap·pear
(dĭs′ə-pîr′)v. dis·ap·peared, dis·ap·pear·ing, dis·ap·pears
v.intr.
1. To pass out of sight; vanish: The moon disappeared behind the clouds.
2. To cease to be seen; be missing or unfound: Her purse disappeared from her locker. The plane disappeared somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.
3. To cease to exist: Dinosaurs disappeared at the end of the Cretaceous Period.
v.tr.
To cause (someone) to disappear, especially by kidnapping or murder.
dis′ap·pear′ance n.
Synonyms: disappear, evanesce, evaporate, fade, vanish
These verbs mean to pass out of sight or existence: a skyscraper disappearing in the fog; time seeming to evanesce; courage evaporating; memories fading away; hope slowly vanishing.
These verbs mean to pass out of sight or existence: a skyscraper disappearing in the fog; time seeming to evanesce; courage evaporating; memories fading away; hope slowly vanishing.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
dis•ap•pear•ance
(ˌdɪs əˈpɪər əns)n.
the act or an instance of disappearing; a ceasing to be seen or to exist.
[1705–15]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
Disappearance
See Also: BEGINNINGS/ENDINGS, DISPERSAL, ELUSIVENESS
- Blown away like clouds —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Blows away like a deck of cards in a hurricane —George Garrett
- Bobbed away like a soap-bubble —Sylvia Plath
- (The premonition had) boiled off like a puff of bad air —Herbert Lieberman
- Borne away like a cork on a stream —Lawrence Durrell
- (The old worlds) died away like dew —Dame Edith Sitwell
- Disappeared as if into fairyland —Peter Najarian
- Disappeared … effortlessly, like a star into a cloud —F. van Wyck Mason
- Disappeared like a sigh —Tom Wolfe
- [Food being served, vegetables] disappeared like leaves before locusts —Charlotte Brontë
- Disappeared like raindrops which fall in the ocean —John T. Morse, about the loss of many of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.’s similes and other witticisms
- Disappeared [huntsmen and hounds into a bewitched forest] like soap bubbles —Anne Sexton
- Disappeared … like sparks dropped into wet grass —James Crumley
- Disappearing like the fastest fairy who ever lived —Brian Donleavy See Also: SPEED
- Disappearing, like water poured out of a wide-necked bottle —Diane Wakoski
- Disappear like a moon entering a cloud bank —Bernard Malamud
- Disappear like quicksilver in the cracks —Booth Tarkington
- Disappear like socks in the laundry —Elyse Sommer
- Disappear like the dew on the mountain —Anon
- Drift away into infinity, like a child’s balloon at a circus —Robert Penn Warren
- Everybody peeled away like an onion —Official of a New York company on reason for his firm’s bankruptcy, New York Times, December 12, 1986
- (The vision of her early loveliness) faded from reality like dew licked up by the sun —Elinor Wylie
- Faded like a cloud which has outswept its rain —Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Faded … like dew upon the sea —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
- (The restlessness in him) faded like fog before sunshine —Pearl S. Buck
- (Light would … ) fade like a slow gray curtain dropping —Nelson Algren
- Fades like the lustre of an evening cloud —William Wordsworth
- [Awareness of children] fading like old ink —Margaret Atwood
- (The season) fading like woodwind music —George Garrett
- Fading like young joy —Dame Edith Sitwell
- Fall away like forgiven sins —Miller Williams
- (All your joys start) falling like sand through a sieve —Lorenz Hart
Hart’s lyric for “A Lady Must Live” from America’s Sweetheart omitted the letter ‘g’ in ‘falling.’
- Fell away like a wall —Dudley Clendinen, New York Times, March 31, 1985, about a publisher’s declining advertising revenues
- (Childhood and youth, friendship and love’s first glow, have) fled like sweet dreams —Percy Bysshe Shelley
- (Any thought I had for such an enterprise) fled like thunder —Richard Ford
- Flown like a thought —John Keats
- Fluttered away like flakes of snow —Louis Bromfield
- [Ceremonial occasions] glide swift into shadow, like sails on the seas —John Greenleaf Whittier
- (He was) gone again, gone like some shadow the fire had made —Davis Grubb
- Gone and out of sight like a thought —Richard Ford
- Gone as a dream is gone from a dreamer wakened with a shout —Lord Dunsany
‘Wakened’ has been modernized from ‘waked.’
- Gone … as if they had evaporated —Dorothy Canfield Fisher
- (That moment is) gone forever, like lightning that flashed and died, like a snowflake upon the river, like a sunbeam upon the tide —Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Gone from my gaze like a beautiful dream —George Linley
- Gone like a flushed toilet —Max Apple
- Gone like a morning dream, or like a pile of clouds —William Wordsworth
- Gone like a quick wind —Ursula Le Guin
- (Our world was) gone like a scrap in the wind —Beryl Markham
- Gone like a wild bird, like a blowing flame —Euripides
- [Smile of a loved one] gone like dreams that we forget —William Wordsworth
- (And all the students) gone, like last week’s snow —Delmore Schwartz
- Gone like our change at the end of the week —Palmer Cox
- (Words) gone like sparks burned up in darkness —Jayne Anne Phillips
- [A funeral procession] gone … like tears in the eyes —Karl Shapiro
- Gone, like tenants that quit without warning —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
- Gone, like the life from a busted balloon —Palmer Cox
- (I am) gone like the shadow when it declines —The Holy Bible /Psalms
The biblical ‘declineth’ has been modernized.
- Go out … just like a candle —Lewis Carroll
- (The Contessina could no longer see him;) it was as though he had slipped from her vision, and the crack had closed above him forever —Elizabeth Bowen
- (Maybe he wanted her to) lift up, blow away somewhere, like a kite —Margaret Atwood
- Like a match struck on a stove … faded and was gone —James Agee
- Like a passing thought she fled —Robert Burns
Burns’ line has found its way into daily language as “Vanish like a passing thought.”
- Like a shadow, glided out of view —William Wordsworth
- Like swallows in autumn they fled, and left the house silent —John Hall Wheelock
- Lost like stars beyond dark trees —Dante Gabriel Rossetti
- (Her patience) melted like snow before a blow-torch —Julia O’Faolain
- (Money) melting away like butter in the sun —Bertolt Brecht
- Off and away like a frightened fish —Ogden Nash
- Pass as if it had never existed, like a fart in a gale of wind —Richard Russo
- Pass away like clouds before the wind —William Wordsworth
- Passed like a ghost from view —John Greenleaf Whittier
- (The wild part of her had) perished like burned grass —Ellen Glasgow
- (Life was) receding … as the sea abruptly withdraws, abandoning a rock it has caressed too long —Françoise Sagan
- Receding like a bad dream —Anon
- (He felt the distress and suspicions of the previous night) receding like a tempest —George Santayana
- [Sounds] receding like the image of a man between two mirrors —Frank Conroy
- Sank like lead into the sea —Brian Moore
- Sank to the bottom as a stone —The Holy Bible/Exodus
- Scuttle away … like moths —W. D. Snodgrass
- (The cares that infest the day,) shall fold their tents, like the Arabs, and as silently steal away —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Shrank away like an ill-treated child —W. H. Auden
- Shrank like an anemone —Derek Lambert
- Slip away like water —Edna St. Vincent Millay
- [Thoughts] slipped away … like bushes on the side of a sheer precipice —Edith Wharton
- Slipping silently away like a thief in a London fog —Jack Whitaker, ABC-TV, about the Goodyear blimp disappearing in the mist above the US Open golf tournament in San Francisco, June 20, 1987
- Slips away like a snake in a weed-tangle —Robert Penn Warren
- Slips out of my life like sand —Diane Wakoski
- A slow fade, like a candle or an icicle —Margaret Atwood
- (The nights) snapped out of sight like a lizard’s eyelid —Sylvia Plath
- Suddenly disappeared with a jerk, as if somebody had given her a violent pull from behind —Charles Dickens
- (Her voice) suddenly disappeared, like a coin in a magic trick —Scott Spencer
- Vanish … as easily as an eel into sand —Arthur Conan Doyle
- Vanish as raindrops which fall in the sea —Susan Coolidge
- Vanish away like the ghost of breath —George Garrett
- Vanished, ghost-like, into air —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Vanished like a puff of steam —H. G. Wells
A frequently used alternative is to vanish or leave “Like a puff of wind.”
- (The stray cat) vanished like a swift, invisible shadow —D. H. Lawrence
- [Food being served, dessert] vanished like a vision —Charlotte Brontë
- Vanished like a wisp of vapor —Edith Wharton
- (He had simply) vanished, like Gaugin —Lynne Sharon Schwartz
- Vanished like midnight ghosts —Charles Lindbergh
Lindbergh used the simile in 1927 to describe the flight of a French plane, L’Oiseau Blanc.
- Vanished like some little bird that has been flushed out of the shrubbery —Mikhail Lermontov
- Vanished like the last of the buffalo hunters —George Garrett
- Vanished [out of his mind] like the mist before the rising sun —H. G. Wells
- [The impression made upon people by a tragedy] vanishes as quickly as a delicious fruit melts in the mouth —Honoré de Balzac
- Vanishes as rapidly as a road runner in a cartoon —New Yorker, August 26, 1985
In the “Talk of The Town” column, this referred to the speed with which a book, once finished, disappears from a writer’s mental picture.
- (Beauty) vanishing like a long sigh —George Garrett
- Vanish like a changing mood —John Hall Wheelock
- Vanish like a cocktail before dinner —Anon
- Vanish like a dew-drop in a rose —Gerald Massey
- Vanish like a ghost before the sun —P. J. Bailey
- Vanish like an echo —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- Vanish like birds in winter —George Garrett
- Vanish like lightning —Henry Taylor
- Vanish like plunging stars —Don Marquis
- Vanish like raindrops which fall in the sea —Anon
- Vanish like smoke —Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Vanish like the Witch of the North —George Garrett
- Vanish like white soft crowns of dandelions in the wind —George Garrett
- Vanish like writing in the sand —Anon
- (My awe of Cruikback) went away like a mist in a high wind —Gerald Kersh
- Went away like a summer fly —W. B. Yeats
- Went gloriously away, like lightning from the sky —Edgar Allen Poe
- [Sense of peace] went out like a shooting star —Edna O’Brien
Similes Dictionary, 1st Edition. © 1988 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
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Noun | 1. | disappearance - the act of leaving secretly or without explanation vanishing - a sudden disappearance from sight appearance - the act of appearing in public view; "the rookie made a brief appearance in the first period"; "it was Bernhardt's last appearance in America" |
2. | disappearance - the event of passing out of sight evanescence - the event of fading and gradually vanishing from sight; "the evanescence of the morning mist" vanishing - a sudden or mysterious disappearance appearance - the event of coming into sight | |
3. | disappearance - gradually ceasing to be visible | |
4. | disappearance - ceasing to exist; "he regretted the disappearance of Greek from school curricula"; "what was responsible for the disappearance of the rainforest?"; "the disappearance of resistance at very low temperatures" |
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
disappearance
noun
1. vanishing, going, passing, disappearing, fading, melting, eclipse, evaporation, evanescence the gradual disappearance of the pain
4. dying out, decline, falling off, petering out the disappearance of dolphins in recent years
Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002
disappearance
nounThe act or an example of passing out of sight:
The American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Translations
إخْتِفاءاِخْتِفَاء
zmizenímizení
forsvinden
katoaminen
nestanak
eltûnés
hvarf
見えなくなること
사라짐
zmiznutie
izginotje
försvinnande
การหายไป
gözden kaybolmaortadan kaybolmayok olma
sự biến mất
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005
disappearance
[ˌdɪsəˈpɪərəns] n [person] → disparition f
[object, money] → disparition f
(= extinction) [species, habitat, tradition, language] → disparition f
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
disappearance
n → Verschwinden nt
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995
disappear
(disəˈpiə) verb1. to vanish from sight. The sun disappeared slowly below the horizon.
2. to fade out of existence. This custom had disappeared by the end of the century.
3. to go away so that other people do not know where one is. A search is being carried out for the boy who disappeared from his home on Monday.
ˌdisapˈpearance nounKernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.
disappearance
→ اِخْتِفَاء zmizení forsvinden Verschwinden εξαφάνιση desaparición katoaminen disparition nestanak scomparsa 見えなくなること 사라짐 verdwijning forsvinning zniknięcie desaparecimento исчезновение försvinnande การหายไป gözden kaybolma sự biến mất 消失Multilingual Translator © HarperCollins Publishers 2009