vanish

present singular third person vanishes · participle present vanishing · participle past vanished · past vanished

1. intransitiveTo become invisible or to move out of view unnoticed.

   I realize sometimes / In a web of passion we all get caught / But understand / All the hurt and all the pain / It's gonna vanish just like the rain

   1982, Ashford & Simpson, “Love It Away”, in Street Opera

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   Holly, mistletoe, red berries, ivy, turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn, meat, pigs, sausages, oysters, pies, puddings, fruit, and punch, all vanished instantly.

   1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Three. The Second of the Three Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, pages 79–80

   The Bat—they called him the Bat. Like a bat he chose the night hours for his work of rapine; like a bat he struck and vanished, pouncingly, noiselessly; like a bat he never showed himself to the face of the day.

   1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Avery Hopwood, chapter I, in The Bat: A Novel from the Play (Dell Book; 241), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 01

2. mathematicsTo become equal to zero.

   The function f such as f(x)#61;x² vanishes at x#61;0.

3. transitiveTo disappear; to kidnap.

   It was whispered that men had been “vanished” by the Line and returned everted. Turned inside out.

   2004, John Varley, The John Varley Reader, Penguin, →ISBN

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   And as if to prove it, one of his friends was vanished and was never seen again. The guy got in a taxi one night, and no one ever saw him ever again.

   2011, Patrick Meaney, Our Sentence Is Up: Seeing Grant Morrison's the Invisibles, Sequart, →ISBN, page 330

plural vanishes

1. human sciencesThe brief terminal part of a vowel or vocal element, differing more or less in quality from the main part.

   a as in ale ordinarily ends with a vanish of i as in ill.

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   o as in old ordinarily ends with a vanish of oo as in foot.

   The median stres may also on a protracted quantity , slightly resemble respectively that of the radical and of the vanish , by sudenly enlarging in the course of the prolongation and gradualy diminishing ; and by the reverse

   1827, James Rush, The Philosophy of the Human Voice

2. A magic trick in which something seems to disappear.

   The French drop is a well-known vanish involving sleight of hand.

3. A disappearance; a vanishment.