VANISH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does vanish mean? 

• VANISH (verb)
  The verb VANISH has 5 senses:

1. get lost, as without warning or explanation

2. become invisible or unnoticeable

3. pass away rapidly

4. cease to exist

5. decrease rapidly and disappear

  Familiarity information: VANISH used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VANISH (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they vanish    ... he / she / it vanishes   
Past simple: vanished   
Past participle: vanished   
-ing form: vanishing   

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 "vanish"):

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 example:

These cars won't vanish

Derivation:

vanisher (a person who disappears)

vanishing (a sudden or mysterious disappearance)

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 "vanish" 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 "vanish"):

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 vanish

Derivation:

vanisher (a person who disappears)

vanishing (a sudden disappearance from sight)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Pass away rapidly

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

fell; fly; vanish

Context example:

Time fleeing beneath him

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

elapse; glide by; go along; go by; lapse; pass; slide by; slip away; slip by (pass by)

Verb group:

fly; vanish; vaporize (decrease rapidly and disappear)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sense 4

Meaning:

Cease to exist

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

disappear; vanish

Context example:

An entire civilization vanished

Hypernyms (to "vanish" 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

Sense 5

Meaning:

Decrease rapidly and disappear

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

fly; vanish; vaporize

Context example:

all my stock assets have vaporized

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

decrease; diminish; fall; lessen (decrease in size, extent, or range)

Verb group:

fell; fly; vanish (pass away rapidly)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

 Context examples 

Meg thought it was too cruel to hint about her sad failure, and the last atom of patience vanished as he spoke.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The foreign host, the foreign footman, the foreign cook, all had vanished in the night!

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Then his mind went blank again, and the pictures began to form and vanish under his eyelids.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He played with them and lost some of his money, but when it struck twelve, everything vanished from his sight.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

“I’ll be back some time, Watson,” said he, and vanished into the night.

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

Point mutations in the gene are linked to leukoencephalopathy with vanishing white matter.

(EIF2B1 wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

Mutations in the gene are linked to both leukoencephalopathy with vanishing white matter and ovarioleukodystrophy.

(EIF2B2 wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

As the sun became warmer and the light of day longer, the snow vanished, and I beheld the bare trees and the black earth.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

He vanished into some hole or window.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

But all was quiet, save that a strange, many-colored bird flew up from under his feet and vanished among the trees.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)