invisible

1. not comparableUnable to be seen; out of sight; not visible.

   Unſpeakable, who ſitſt above theſe Heavens / To us inviſible or dimly ſeen / In theſe thy loweſt works,[…]

   1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

   5 more examples

   The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on a certain afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track.[…]Their example was followed by others at a time when the master of Mohair was superintending in person the docking of some two-year-olds, and equally invisible.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, pages 58–59

   An interesting feature of the church is the invisible clock, which you can hear thumping away as you enter. Constructed in 1525, it is one of the oldest timepieces in England. It chimes the hours and the quarters, and every three hours it plays a hymn. But it has no faces.

   1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 163

   Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.

   2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, pages 206–7

   The teeth on an invisible zip are different from those on a conventional zip, as they are turned onto the inside so that they do not show, giving the impression of being concealed in the seam, as seen below.

   2013, Jayne Smith, Guide to Basic Garment Assembly for the Fashion Industry, page 60

   Soon after departure, we cross the invisible border into Scotland to enjoy more stunning coastal scenery, before the line finally swings inland at Burnmouth to traverse pine-clad valleys, shadowed by the A1 trunk road until we rejoin the coast at Cove, east of Dunbar.

   2022 November 30, Paul Bigland, “Destination Oban: a Sunday in Scotland”, in RAIL, number 971, page 75

   Synonyms: unseeable, unvisible, viewless · Antonyms: apparent, visible

2. not comparableNot appearing on the surface.

   The physical covering of this image limited the Christians’ view, rendering the image invisible on all but a few occasions.

   2024, Katherine Aron-Beller, chapter 6, in Christian Images and Their Jewish Desecrators: The History of an Allegation, 400–1700, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, →ISBN, page 261

   Synonyms: invis, hidden, latent

3. Internetnot comparableApparently, but not actually, offline.

   I went invisible so that my ex-girlfriend wouldn't send me instant messages.

4. not comparablehuman sciencesThat is ignored by a person.

present singular third person invisibles · participle present invisibling · participle past invisibled · past invisibled

1. To make invisible, to invisiblize.

   In the next section I look at some of the factors that contribute to the “invisibling” of people in later life in terms of the marginalization and splitting that occurs in providing decent psychological as well as physical care.

   2007, Rachael Davenhill, Looking into Later Life

plural invisibles

1. obsoleteAn invisible person or thing; specifically, God, the Supreme Being.
2. obsoleteA Rosicrucian; so called because avoiding declaration of his craft.
3. obsoleteOne of those (as in the 16th century) who denied the visibility of the church.

   Invisibles. Heretics who denied the visibility of the Church

   1872, Orby Shipley, A Glossary of Ecclesiastical Terms