dematerialize

verb — 3 senses

dematerialize

verb

UK /ˌdiː.məˈtɪə.ɹɪ.ə.laɪz/ · US /ˌdi.məˈtɪɹ.i.ə.laɪz/

Etymology From de- + materialize.

1

British, English, Oxford, US To disappear by becoming immaterial.

Nightmares were, after all, a type of demon; they could dematerialize in much the way Fiant did.2002, Piers Anthony, Ogre, Ogre, page 9:
"So, I'll need you to look at the nth field targeting so when the object dematerializes from here, we can rematerialize it there."2016, A.K. Brown, Jumpstart (Champagne Universe Series: Book 1), page 15:

2

British, English, Oxford, US To cause something to disappear by making it immaterial.

Some magicians claim they can dematerialize their bodies and re-materialize them in a different location.2009, Etson White, Revelation of God, page 161:

3

British, English, Oxford, US To remove the physical materials from (a process, etc.).

Even though the book is still a difficult object to dematerialize and the paper books are not replaceable, the trend seems to be to prefer an e-book rather than a physical book […]2013, Mike Friedrichsen, Wolfgang Mühl-Benninghaus, Handbook of Social Media Management:

Synonyms: disappear, disintegrate, dissolve, vanish
Derived terms: dematerializer
Related terms: dematerialization, materialize, materialization, rematerialize, rematerialization

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.

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Conjugation of “dematerialize”, all tenses