disappear
//dɪsəˈpɪə//
Forms
- present (v1)
- disappear
- past (v2)
- disappeared
- past participle (v3)
- disappeared
- present participle
- disappearing
- 3rd person singular
- disappears
Definitions
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.
- 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.
4.To make vanish; especially, to abduct or murder for political reasons.
- The Chinese government is well-known for disappearing particularly vocal political dissidents.
- "It's such an honoring for Native people in this country, when we've been so disappeared and disregarded," Harjo says.
- 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.
Frequency
Overall
Common· #1814
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Uncommon
- General reading & writing
- Common
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Uncommon
Related words
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)”).