disappear
verbUK /dɪsəˈpɪə/ · US /dɪsəˈpɪɹ/
Etymology From Middle English disapeeren, equivalent to dis- + appear. Displaced native Old English fordwīnan. Displaced native Old English cwincan, whose causative persists as quench (“put out (fire)”).
1
To vanish.
2
To go missing; to become a missing person.
- Eighteen years after Jaycee Dugard disappeared in 1991, she was found alive in the summer of 2009.
3
To go away; to become lost.
- I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields[…]. And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair,[…]. My client welcomed the judge […] and they disappeared together into the Ethiopian card-room, which was filled with the assegais and exclamation point shields Mr. Cooke had had made at the sawmill at Beaverton.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
- A turban and loincloth soaked in blood had been found; also a staff. These properties were known to have belonged to a toddy drawer. He had disappeared.1927, F. E. Penny, chapter 4, in Pulling the Strings:
1 more example
- Streaks became what separated my "real" friends from the rest of my contacts on the app. I had to maintain snap streaks not because my friends or I wanted to, but because letting it disappear would see that physical quantification of our friendship fall back down to zero.2017 August 12, Nick Vega, “I just lost a 159-day Snapchat streak and I couldn't be happier”, in Business Insider, archived from the original on 07 Feb 2018:
4
Euphemistic, Often To make vanish; especially, to abduct or murder for political reasons.
- The Chinese government is well-known for disappearing particularly vocal political dissidents.
- "Did they disappear him?" "I don’t know." "What will you do if they decide to disappear you?"1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “Kid Sister”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 416:
4 more examples
- Now a new hunt is under way to find a grave believed to contain the remains of some of those who were “disappeared” at Colonia Dignidad.2018 May 2, Marella Oppenheim, “Excavations at Chile torture site offer new hope for relatives of disappeared”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 29 Apr 2019:
- "It's such an honoring for Native people in this country, when we've been so disappeared and disregarded," Harjo says.2019 June 19, Lynn Neary, Patrick Jarenwattananon, quoting Joy Harjo, “Joy Harjo Becomes The First Native American U.S. Poet Laureate”, in NPR, archived from the original on 29 Mar 2020:
- The book centres on Eilish Stack, a scientist, mother of four and wife to a teacher trade unionist who has been disappeared by the secret police.2023 December 2, Frederick Studemann, “Civilisation is so easily lost”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 11:
- Yet after her brother was detained and disappeared by Israeli forces at a checkpoint as he evacuated south months ago, Ms. Nabil, like others, fears moving south.2024 October 25, Ghada Abdulfattah and Taylor Luck, “Under deadly Israeli siege, north Gaza residents face terrifying ultimatum”, in The Christian Science Monitor, archived from the original on 01 Nov 2024:
- Derived terms
- disappearable, disappearer, disappearess, disappearing act, disappearing carriage, disappearing disease, disappearingly, disappearing stairs, disappear into thin air, nondisappearing, redisappear, undisappearing, up and disappear
- Related terms
- disappearance