appear

English

Etymology

From Middle English apperen, aperen, from Old French aparoir (French apparoir, apparaître), from Latin apparēre (“to appear”), from ad (“to”) + parēre (“come forth, to be visible”).

Pronunciation

Verb

appear (third-person singular simple present appears, present participle appearing, simple past and past participle appeared)

  1. (intransitive) To come or be in sight; to be in view; to become visible.
    • 1611, Genesis 1:9:
      And God ... said, Let ... the dry land appear.
    • 2012 March-April, Jeremy Bernstein, “A Palette of Particles”, American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 146: 
      There were also particles no one had predicted that just appeared. Five of them […, i]n order of increasing modernity, […] are the neutrino, the pi meson, the antiproton, the quark and the Higgs boson.
  2. (intransitive) To come before the public.
    • 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 2, The Affair at the Novelty Theatre[1]:
      Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.
    A great writer appeared at that time.
  3. (intransitive) To stand in presence of some authority, tribunal, or superior person, to answer a charge, plead a cause, or the like; to present one's self as a party or advocate before a court, or as a person to be tried.
    One ruffian escaped because no prosecutor dared to appear.
  4. (intransitive) To become visible to the apprehension of the mind; to be known as a subject of observation or comprehension, or as a thing proved; to be obvious or manifest.
    • 1611, 1 John 3:2:
      It doth not yet appear what we shall be.
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton:
      Of their vain contest appeared no end.
  5. (intransitive, copulative) To seem; to have a certain semblance; to look.
    He appeared quite happy with the result.
    • 1611, Matthew 6:16:
      They disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast.

Usage notes

Synonyms

Antonyms

Related terms

Translations

To come or be in sight; to be in view; to become visible
To come before the public
To stand in presence of some authority, tribunal, or superior person, to answer a charge, plead a cause, or the like
To become visible to the apprehension of the mind
To seem; to have a certain semblance; to look
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Last modified on 18 May 2013, at 11:17