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rare

Contents

EnglishEdit

PronunciationEdit

Etymology 1Edit

From a dialectal variant of rear, from Middle English rere, from Old English hrēr, hrēre (“not thoroughly cooked, underdone, lightly boiled”), from hrēran (“to move, shake, agitate”), from Proto-Germanic *hrōzijaną (“to stir”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱera-, *ḱrā- (“to mix, stir, cook”). Related to Old English hrōr (“stirring, busy, active, strong, brave”). More at rear.

Alternative formsEdit

AdjectiveEdit

rare (comparative rarer or more rare, superlative rarest or most rare)

  1. (cooking, particularly meats) Cooked very lightly, so the meat is still red (in the case of steak or beef in the general sense).
    • Dryden
      New-laid eggs, which Baucis' busy care / Turned by a gentle fire, and roasted rare.
SynonymsEdit
AntonymsEdit
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TranslationsEdit

Etymology 2Edit

From Middle English rare, from Old French rare, rere (“rare, uncommon”), from Latin rārus (“loose, spaced apart, thin, infrequent”), from Proto-Indo-European *er(e)-, *rē- (“friable, thin”). Replaced native Middle English gesen ("rare, scarce"; from Old English gǣsne), Middle English seld ("rare, uncommon"; from Old English selden), and Middle English seldsene ("rare, rarely seen, infrequent"; from Old Norse sialdsēnn; see seldsome).

AdjectiveEdit

rare (comparative rarer, superlative rarest)

  1. Very uncommon; scarce.
    Black pearls are very rare and therefore very valuable.
    • 2013 May-June, David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan, “Wild Plants to the Rescue”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:
      Plant breeding is always a numbers game. […] The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation, and individual plants are highly heterozygous and do not breed true. In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better.
  2. (of a gas) Thin; of low density.
SynonymsEdit
AntonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit

Etymology 3Edit

Variant of rear.

VerbEdit

rare (third-person singular simple present rares, present participle raring, simple past and past participle rared)

  1. (US, intransitive) To rear, rise up, start backwards.
    • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, p. 328:
      Frank pretended to rare back as if bedazzled, shielding his eyes with a forearm.
  2. (US, transitive) To rear, bring up, raise.
Usage notesEdit
  • (Discuss(+) this sense) Principal current, non-literary use is of the present participle raring with a verb in "raring to". The principal verb in that construction is go. Thus, raring to go ("eager (to start something)") is the expression in which rare is most often encountered as a verb.

Etymology 4Edit

Compare rather, rath.

AdjectiveEdit

rare (comparative more rare, superlative most rare)

  1. (obsolete) early
    • Chapman
      Rude mechanicals that rare and late / Work in the market place.

AnagramsEdit

DanishEdit

AdjectiveEdit

rare

  1. plural and definite singular attributive of rar

DutchEdit

Alternative formsEdit

PronunciationEdit

AdjectiveEdit

rare

  1. Inflected form of raar

NounEdit

rare m (plural raren, diminutive rareke n)

  1. weird person

SynonymsEdit

ReferencesEdit

FrenchEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Latin rārus.

PronunciationEdit

AdjectiveEdit

rare (plural rares)

  1. rare

Derived termsEdit

AnagramsEdit

Further readingEdit

GermanEdit

PronunciationEdit

AdjectiveEdit

rare

  1. inflected form of rar

IdoEdit

AdverbEdit

rare

  1. rarely

AntonymsEdit

ItalianEdit

AdjectiveEdit

rare f pl

  1. feminine plural of raro

AnagramsEdit

LatinEdit

AdjectiveEdit

rāre

  1. vocative masculine singular of rārus

ReferencesEdit

NormanEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Latin rārus.

AdjectiveEdit

rare m, f

  1. (Jersey) rare

Derived termsEdit

SwedishEdit

AdjectiveEdit

rare

  1. absolute definite natural masculine form of rar.
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