Library / English Dictionary

VANISH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Decrease rapidly and disappear

Example:

all my stock assets have vaporized

Synonyms:

fly; vanish; vaporize

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

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

Sense 2

Meaning:

Get lost, as without warning or explanation

Example:

He disappeared without a trace

Synonyms:

disappear; go away; vanish

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

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 3

Meaning:

Cease to exist

Example:

An entire civilization vanished

Synonyms:

disappear; vanish

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

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 4

Meaning:

Pass away rapidly

Example:

Time fleeing beneath him

Synonyms:

fell; fly; vanish

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

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 5

Meaning:

Become invisible or unnoticeable

Example:

The effect vanished when day broke

Synonyms:

disappear; go away; vanish

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

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)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Mrs. Fairfax, I saw, approved me: her anxiety on my account vanished; therefore I was certain I did well.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Whither, then, could he have vanished to?

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"You must begin your improvements on this house," observed Elinor, "and your difficulties will soon vanish."

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

A mole could trace it, and there it vanishes among the reeds.

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

Hubble found two dark storms that appeared in the mid-1990s and then vanished.

(Hubble Sees Neptune's Mysterious Shrinking Storm, NASA)

All his splendid initiative had vanished.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Genetic mutations in the allele are linked to Cree leukoencephalopathy, leukoencephalopathy with vanishing white matter and ovarioleukodystrophy.

(EIF2B5 wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

So all hesitancy vanished, and the pair descended into the cabin.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Then, clutching it in his hand, he vanished through a doorway.

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

Mercury rules the moving parts in machines and the spark in computers, so if you have dealt with computer or email problems, those will likely vanish now.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)