rarefy
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to make rare or rarer; make less dense.
to rarefy a gas.
-
to make more refined, spiritual, or exalted.
verb (used without object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of rarefy
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English rarefien, from Middle French rarefier, from Medieval Latin rārificāre, from Latin rārēfacere, equivalent to rārē-, irregular, unexplained combining form of rārus + facere “to make”; see origin at rare 1, -fy
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.
See Examples For:
Although these sculptures pay tribute to commercialism, they rarefy it to something austere — or at least as austere as anything with pulsing green lights can be.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 19, 2018
Of course it’s serious, and art is serious, but I’m not going to rarefy it.”
From New York Times ● Dec. 16, 2011
It contains moist air and a movable diaphragm or piston to rarefy it suddenly.
From Time Magazine Archive
It will be well also to compare such words as stupefy and stupidity, rarity and rarefy.
From The Art Of Writing & Speaking The English Language Word-Study and Composition & Rhetoric by Sherwin Cody
But as such means are not at disposal, it becomes necessary to place the terminal in the bulb and rarefy the air in the same.
From The inventions, researches and writings of Nikola Tesla With special reference to his work in polyphase currents and high potential lighting by Thomas Commerford Martin
In the same way that regional brands like Shake Shack and In-N-Out have maintained cult followings for their novelty, Cane’s has no doubt benefited from the same kind of rarefied air.
From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2026
His mental adjustment on how to react to failure, combined with a conditioning program that led him to lose 10 pounds and become faster and stronger, created a spring environment sending him into rarefied air.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 7, 2026
Were Chun to win this tournament, she would be in rarefied air with bookend victories separated by 11 years.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026
On Friday, Trump will pay a visit to Zhongnanhai, a rarefied compound where China's leaders live and work.
From BBC ● May 13, 2026
For the first semester, I was one of three Black students in the school, and in that rarefied atmosphere I came to love my people more.
From "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou
After rarefying to 5,000 sequences per sample, a total of 307,572 unique sequences were contained in the 96 studies and 23,828 samples of the ‘QC-filtered’ Deblur 90-bp observation table.
From Nature ● Oct. 31, 2017
A head of one hundred and eighty degrees is sufficient to diminish the weight of the air it contains to the extent of one-half, by rarefying it.
From Five Weeks in a Balloon by Jules Verne
On rarefying the gas still more, a few large ramifications were obtained of a pale bluish colour, utterly unlike those in nitrogen.
From Experimental Researches in Electricity, Volume 1 by Michael Faraday
Funnels for clearing ships' holds of foul air, on the principle of the rarefying power of heat.
From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Sir Edward Belcher
The porous condition of the bone, which is here shown, is a result of a rarefying or rarefactive ostitis.
From Diseases of the Horse's Foot by Harry Caulton Reeks
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.
