vanish into thin air

vanish into thin air

1. To become invisible or pass out of sight, especially very suddenly or mysteriously. The wizard waved his wand and vanished into thin air. The magician's signature illusion is to make a volunteer vanish into thin air.
2. To become lost without leaving any trace behind. Police have been searching for a young girl who seemingly vanished into thin air two weeks ago. Authorities remain puzzled by the airplane that vanished into thin air somewhere over the Atlantic. The company has yet to explain how $10 million of venture capital vanished into thin air without so much as a prototype to show for it.
3. To be forgotten about very suddenly by the entire population, especially after being very popular. The digital pets fad took the world by storm in the late 1990s, but it pretty much vanished into thin air by the end of the millennium. After releasing their hit album, the band suddenly stopped performing live and seemed to vanish into thin air.
See also: air, thin, vanish
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

vanish into thin air

Cliché to disappear without leaving a trace. My money gets spent so fast. It seems to vanish into thin air. When I came back, my car was gone. I had locked it, and it couldn't have vanished into thin air!
See also: air, thin, vanish
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

vanish into thin air, to

To disappear altogether. Exactly when it was known that the higher one goes the thinner the air (owing to less available oxygen) is not certain. Shakespeare, however, wrote of ghosts that “Melted into air, into thin air” in 1610 (The Tempest, 4:1). A twentieth-century version of this cliché is the vanishing act, said of a person who unexpectedly disappears. It comes from the magician’s trick of making something disappear (hence “act”). The essayist Logan Pearsall Smith used it poignantly in All Trivia (1933): “I cannot forgive my friends for dying; I do not find these vanishing acts of theirs at all amusing.”
See also: thin, vanish
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • vanish into thin air, to
  • vanish from
  • vanish from (something)
  • appear out of thin air
  • appear, etc. out of thin air
  • come into sight
  • burst into sight
  • magic up
  • wand waver
  • waver
References in classic literature
I had been about to suggest that we seek entrance to the city, but now I scarce know if I care to venture among people whose dead vanish into thin air."
The eyewitness said "the craft engaging it's 'Cloaking technology' because the UFO didn't fly out of view, it simply vanished." It did vanish into thin air, and was nowhere to be found after that.
Prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC said the story was "frankly absurd", adding: "Dave did not vanish into thin air did he?
He said: "Dave did not vanish into thin air, did he?
KARACHI -- Pakistan People's Party (PPP) senior leader Manzoor Hussain Wassan has predicted that MQM-Pakistan and London, Pak SarZameen Party (PSP) and Mohajir Quami Movement will vanish into thin air.
NINE out of 10 young people have been "ghosted" by partners or friends - who vanish into thin air without explanation.
Tipped by many to do well this term, former Newcastle boss Pardew has watched his teams good early form vanish into thin air, and now Rafa has undoubtedly targeted this game for a win.
Betty chased her and when the apparent child-snatcher crossed Ranelagh Street, she seemed to vanish into thin air, leaving Marie behind.
Well let's face it, what has Charity done for him apart from making the woman he loved, Rachel, vanish into thin air? As the prosecution prepare to get their teeth into a wavering Sam, which way will he go - save Charity's skin or see justice done?
In The Leftovers, 2% of the world's population vanish into thin air on an otherwise normal day.
Nobody imagined that less than three years later, all of that potential, and rosy talk, would vanish into thin air when Syrian-Turkish relations hit rock bottom.
Then they find themselves sharing a single densely packed grotty room and work long hours only to be left high and dry when their, usually Bulgarian, employers vanish into thin air a few months later.
Readers will immediately be hooked by these parallel stories: within the first page, Beatrice, driving a horse-drawn sleigh through the Canadian wilderness, witnesses a school bus suddenly appear and then vanish into thin air.
The mysterious structure is seen for several minutes at a time, and then seems to vanish into thin air. The object has about the same height, width and depth as the red classic Giles Gilbert Scott telephone box, only it features odd geometrical facets, so that it resembles some prop from the low-budget era of Doctor Who.
All the shops and eating establishments prior to Passport Control saw their customers vanish into thin air, as travellers left the airport complexes, and headed reluctantly back home.