disappeared

American  

[dis-uh-peerd] / ˌdɪs əˈpɪərd /

adjective

1. having vanished from sight or existence.

   Right this minute, the only thing I want to do is to find a way to recover my disappeared phone photos.

   The museum displays tools and artifacts from an almost disappeared culture, known only from one archaeological site.

2. (of a person) having vanished under suspicious or unknown circumstances.

   Family members of the disappeared persons were denied the right to any effective remedy, including the right to know the fate of their loved ones.

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noun

(used with a plural verb)

1. none the disappeared people, especially political opponents, who have vanished under suspicious or unknown circumstances, or without due process of law.

   The determination of the parents, grandparents, and—most recently—children of the disappeared is finally putting dictators, torturers, and their accomplices behind bars.

verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of disappear.

Etymology

Origin of disappeared

First recorded in 1400–50 as a verb: disappear ( def. ) + -ed ¹ ( def. ), and in 1640–50 as an adjective: disappear ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

Example Sentences

Although Liam has since been released, “We’ve had other students in our building also taken in. We realized a fifth grader was also at the detention center; they had just kind of disappeared.”

From Salon

Feeling “unease at seeing history being ‘snipped and clipped and disappeared,’” he dubbed his process “guerrilla teaching.”

From Salon

In these preclinical experiments, tumors disappeared entirely and did not return, and the animals showed no signs of harmful side effects.

From Science Daily

Lush green reeds in the channel had suddenly turned brown and lifeless, and birds had disappeared.

From Los Angeles Times

So much so, she says, the stretch marks she developed after having her two children have almost disappeared.

From BBC

Related Words

• absent
• adrift
• disoriented
• hidden
• invisible
• misplaced
• vanished