thin air

Related to thin air: vanish into thin air, disappear into thin air

thin air

A figurative phrase used to suggest nothingness or nonexistence. I had no idea she'd researched the budget so thoroughly—she pulled that report out of thin air. I didn't see Mike leave the party, he just disappeared into thin air.
See also: air, thin
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • at a dead end
  • the well has run dry
  • well's run dry, the
  • don't bring a knife to a gunfight
  • bow the knee
  • Abraham
  • Abraham's bosom
  • the answer to somebody's prayers
  • the/an answer to (one's) prayer(s)
  • be history
References in periodicals archive
Finally, on 1 May this year, Thin Air went out into the world.
CRITICISM: Strictly Come Dancing's Brendan Cole accused X Factor of creating careers 'out of thin air', Above, Brendan with with Anita Dobson.
In fact, in theory, the government could abolish all taxes and pay all its bills through the creation of money out of thin air. But such an approach would make obvious the fact that inflation is a tax.
And the chiefs can hardly feed our army thin air, so they're forced to buy the food in.
The work mentioned above is simply stuff Neil and I picked out of thin air, but you might require other custom features to suit your needs, What really drives the price up is custom work done just for looks.
My big gripe is why, when these children attend special schools, does the education authority think they disappear into thin air when they leave?
OUT OF THIN AIR: Dinosaurs, Birds, and Earth's Ancient Atmosphere PETER D.
Others have carved niches out of thin air. A year ago, one cruise line opened for business and decided to really do its own thing.
A team of researchers has found that the thin air inside airplanes does not trigger blood clots.
The result: Century 21 has become one the most profitable stores per square foot in Manhattan, thanks in part to this additional 5,000 square feet built into thin air.
In their film Stories Are Propaganda, 2005, a sequence of images shot in China--of a smokestack belching black plumes, of ocean waves crashing to shore, of a rabbit appearing out of thin air in a magician's box--is accompanied by a child's long monologue.
The article also failed to mention the glitches in PayPal's transferring programs that would randomly make a customer's money vanish into thin air. PayPal would not be able to find what happened to the money and often apparently didn't care, resulting in many more "frivolous" lawsuits.
The net result would be increased productivity, seemingly out of thin air.
(that are grabbed out of thin air by pampered, self-indulgent, hedonistic special interest groups.) Continuing a theme he has been developing in books, articles, and interviews over the last few years, he warned again of the advance of anti-Christian secularism both outside and within the Church.
INTO THIN AIR is an intriguing military police romantic mystery in which readers know Kelsey witnessed a murder, but Julian firmly believes she banged her head and imagined the whole thing.