DISAPPEAR

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does disappear mean? 

• DISAPPEAR (verb)
  The verb DISAPPEAR has 4 senses:

1. get lost, as without warning or explanation

2. become invisible or unnoticeable

3. cease to exist

4. become less intense and fade away gradually

  Familiarity information: DISAPPEAR used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DISAPPEAR (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they disappear    ... he / she / it disappears   
Past simple: disappeared   
Past participle: disappeared   
-ing form: disappearing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Get lost, as without warning or explanation

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

disappear; go away; vanish

Context example:

He disappeared without a trace

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "disappear"):

fall away; fall off (diminish in size or intensity)

fall (go as if by falling)

die (disappear or come to an end)

go (be abolished or discarded)

absent; remove (go away or leave)

blow over; evanesce; fade; fleet; pass; pass off (disappear gradually)

fade; wither (lose freshness, vigor, or vitality)

skip town; take a powder (disappear without notifying anyone (idiom))

die off; die out (become extinct)

desorb (go away from the surface to which (a substance) is adsorbed)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s PP

Sentence examples:

Sam and Sue disappear
These cars won't disappear

Antonym:

appear (come into sight or view)

Derivation:

disappearance; disappearing (the act of leaving secretly or without explanation)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Become invisible or unnoticeable

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Synonyms:

disappear; go away; vanish

Context example:

The effect vanished when day broke

Hypernyms (to "disappear" is one way to...):

cease; end; finish; stop; terminate (have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "disappear"):

dematerialise; dematerialize (become immaterial; disappear)

clear (go away or disappear)

bob under (disappear suddenly, as if under the surface of a body of water)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Sentence example:

The moon will soon disappear

Derivation:

disappearance (gradually ceasing to be visible)

disappearance (the event of passing out of sight)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Cease to exist

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

disappear; vanish

Context example:

An entire civilization vanished

Hypernyms (to "disappear" is one way to...):

cease; end; finish; stop; terminate (have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Antonym:

appear (come into being or existence, or appear on the scene)

Derivation:

disappearance (gradually ceasing to be visible)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Become less intense and fade away gradually

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

disappear; evaporate; melt

Context example:

her hopes evaporated after years of waiting for her fiance

Hypernyms (to "disappear" is one way to...):

weaken (become weaker)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP

 Context examples 

Treatment that is given after cancer has disappeared following the initial therapy.

(Consolidation therapy, NCI Dictionary)

Nothing will make the scar tissue disappear, but treating the cause can keep it from getting worse.

(Cirrhosis, NIH: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases)

The instant that the Professor had disappeared, it struck me what a really extraordinarily lucky chance Fate had placed in my way.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It is characterized by episodes of muscle paralysis in which the affected muscles become flaccid and the deep tendon reflexes disappear.

(Familial Periodic Paralysis, NCI Thesaurus)

The warts might disappear on their own.

(Genital Warts, NIH: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)

‘Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?’

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

These reflexes are involuntary and most disappear as the infant matures.

(Infant Reflex, NCI Thesaurus)

The diseases may also have flare-ups, when they get worse, and remissions, when symptoms get better or disappear.

(Autoimmune Diseases, NIH)

When a species disappears, the opportunity to use chemicals found in those animals for research also disappears.

(Deadly fungal disease ‘caused greatest biodiversity loss ever recorded’, SciDev.Net)

This species is nonmotile, oxidase positive and ferments glucose, although the latter characteristic may disappear upon continuous subcultivation.

(Kingella denitrificans, NCI Thesaurus)