dematerialize
Americanverb (used with or without object)
verb
-
to cease to have material existence, as in science fiction or spiritualism
-
to disappear without trace; vanish
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of dematerialize
First recorded in 1880–85; de- + materialize
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The lively canvas, hardly an illustration of an event, employs light-reflective silver and golden-brown metallic paints applied in vast fields of paisley-like commas that dematerialize into a spatially ambiguous surface shimmer.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 29, 2024
Restaurants have had it rough in South Lake Union, where Amazon workers love lunch and can get behind a happy hour, but tend to dematerialize at dinnertime.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 22, 2020
In a world determined to dematerialize our interactions with each other, we crave the tactile experience of an actual card — something to choose, something to personalize, something to save.
From Washington Post • Feb. 11, 2020
Outside the truck, cities appear as so many bright lights, and then dematerialize, leaving Javier and the women journeyers on a big conveyor belt of cosmic darkness.
From The New Yorker • Jun. 3, 2019
“Can’t I?” replied Merlyn, taking up the position always used by philosophers who propose to dematerialize.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
