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
The air consequently was damp and gross, for want of stronger rays to open and rarefy it.
From The Boys' and Girls' Plutarch being parts of the "Lives" of Plutarch, edited for boys and girls by John S. (John Stuart) White
The hot air in the smoke flues will warm the separating brick partition, and consequently rarefy the air in the ventilating flue.
From A Treatise on Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene (Revised Edition) by Calvin Cutter
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
So far, Whoop has focused its marketing efforts on positioning itself as an aspirational brand worn by some of the fittest people in the world in the most rarefied spaces.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 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
On Friday, Trump will pay a visit to Zhongnanhai, a rarefied compound where China's leaders live and work.
From BBC ● May 13, 2026
Even Amaranta, lying in a wicker basket, observed with curiosity the absorbing work of her father and her brother in the small room where the air was rarefied by mercury vapors.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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
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
These tubercles may be present in large numbers at the expense of the living tissue, and a rarefying ostitis is thus produced.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Slice 2 "Bohemia" to "Borgia, Francis" by Various
And here, it is proper to add, that all aromatics, by rarefying the blood, are cordial.
From A Treatise on Foreign Teas Abstracted From An Ingenious Work, Lately Published, Entitled An Essay On the Nerves by Hugh Smith
And thinning, with escaping pressure, rarefying so that I could feel the grasp of it in my lungs and the pin-pricks in my cheeks.
From Brigands of the Moon by Ray Cummings
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.
