fade-out
Movies, Television. a gradual decrease in the visibility of a scene.
Broadcasting, Recording. a gradual decrease in the volume of sound, especially of recorded or broadcast music, dialogue, or the like, usually ending in complete inaudibility.
a gradual disappearance or reduction: the fade-out of a brilliant career.
Origin of fade-out
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use fade-out in a sentence
The Ebola virus outbreak that began this spring in Guinea, West Africa, is refusing to fade out.
The Ebola Outbreak in West Africa Is Just Getting Worse | Kent Sepkowitz | June 23, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTFade out, as the words “The United States & Israel Ultimate Allies” come up on the screen.
They need to know more about what they call program “fade-out.”
But I did have this blog there, and I missed having a blog, so fade in out, fade out, and now I have a blog here.
But now strange faces seem to fade out and familiar ones take their places.
My Wonderful Visit | Charlie Chaplin
The skulking, strutting, mincing, hurrying forms that pass us and fade out into the night are now becoming characters.
My Wonderful Visit | Charlie ChaplinHe looked at her still with that searching look, which seemed to fade out of his eyes as he gazed.
North and South | Elizabeth Cleghorn GaskellRose expected it to go something like a "fade-out" on the moving picture screen.
Six Little Bunkers at Mammy June's | Laura Lee HopeThe attacking thoughts may become less violent, or your resistance greater, in either of which cases the condition will fade out.
British Dictionary definitions for fade-out
films an optical effect in which a shot slowly disappears into darkness
a gradual reduction in signal strength in a radio or television broadcast
a gradual and temporary loss of a received radio or television signal due to atmospheric disturbances, magnetic storms, etc
a slow or gradual disappearance
to decrease or cause to decrease gradually, as vision or sound in a film or broadcast
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with fade-out
Gradually disappear or become inaudible; also, cause to disappear or become inaudible gradually. For example, He let the final chord fade out completely before he played the next movement. The antonym is fade in, “to appear gradually or become audible,” as in The images on the screen faded in until they could be seen clearly. These terms originated in the motion-picture and broadcasting industries, where they apply to images and sounds. [c. 1915]
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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