rarefied
[rair-uh-fahyd]
- extremely high or elevated; lofty; exalted: the rarefied atmosphere of a scholarly symposium.
- of, belonging to, or appealing to an exclusive group; select; esoteric: rarefied tastes.
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Origin of rarefied
rarefy
[rair-uh-fahy]
- to make rare or rarer; make less dense: to rarefy a gas.
- to make more refined, spiritual, or exalted.
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- to become rare or less dense; become thinned: Moisture rarefies when heated.
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Origin of rarefy
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for rarefied
Contemporary Examples
These subtleties are easily missed from the national perspective and, apparently, inside the rarefied air of the NRCC.
St. Peter Damian damned her for “excessive delicacy” in preferring such a rarefied implement to her God-given hands.
She is not some rarefied doyenne whose choices carry moral clout.
With that single gesture, he put a human face on this rarefied brand, one that last year boasted €826 million in revenue.
Birmingham, after all, seems an unlikely breeding ground for so rarefied a creature as the author of In Patagonia.
Historical Examples
Science has told you that at such an altitude the air is rarefied.
Marion's Faith.Charles King
It appears to respire as easily in the most rarefied air as on the seashore.
The Western WorldW.H.G. Kingston
But I will not press this view, which may be too rarefied and lofty for the vulgar mind.
A PessimistRobert Timsol
The birds had long abandoned us, for in that rarefied air they could not have flown.
A Winter Amid the IceJules Verne
They were intoxicated with rarefied atmosphere, not with alcohol.
The Rocky Mountain WonderlandEnos A. Mills
rarefied
- exalted in nature or character; loftya rarefied spiritual existence
- current within only a small group; esoteric or exclusive
- (of a gas, esp the atmosphere at high altitudes) having a low density; thin
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rarefy
- to make or become rarer or less dense; thin out
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Word Origin
C14: from Old French raréfier, from Latin rārēfacere, from rārus rare 1 + facere to make
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
Word Origin and History for rarefied
rarefy
v.
late 14c., from Old French rarefier (14c.) and directly from Medieval Latin rarificare, from Latin rarefacere "make rare," from rarus "rare, thin" (see rare (adj.1)) + facere "to make" (see factitious). Related: Rarefied.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper