into thin air

Idioms  

1. Also, into the blue. Completely disappeared, as in The report was here on my desk and now it's gone, vanished into thin air, or I don't know where they've gone—into the blue, for all I know. Both of these hyperbolic expressions, often preceded by vanish as in the first example, use the rarefied atmosphere far above the earth as a metaphor for an unknown location. Shakespeare wrote of ghosts that “melted . . . into thin air” (The Tempest, 4:1). An antonym for both is out of thin air, meaning “from an unknown place or source.” For example, She made up this excuse out of thin air, or The car appeared out of thin air. However, out of the blue is not precisely an antonym (see under out of a clear blue sky).

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

into thin air

"An important link in the chain has just vanished into thin air, without there even having been a chance to recover the information Daniel Siad might have possessed—given that he was never questioned," she said.

From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026

For the second straight night, a late-game three-run lead had evaporated into thin air.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2025

Two others, Bobby Mills and Mickey Gervaise, were thought to be on board - although afterwards they disappeared into "thin air", the police investigation found.

From BBC ● Nov. 16, 2024

This, despite getting nothing from her subject save for breadcrumb trails that went cold, leads that dissolved into thin air.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2024

A sparrow flitted by so fast it looked like it vanished into thin air.

From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova