disappear

disappear from (something)

1. To become no longer visible. I watched Jill's car drive away until it disappeared from view.
2. To become missing from some place, as if having been removed or become lost (usually to someone's surprise or confusion). I would give you my stapler, but it seems to have disappeared from my desk. That poor little girl disappeared from that school back in the '80s and was never found.
See also: disappear

disappear into the woodwork

To recede or absent oneself from public view; to become or remain hidden in society. The former movie star, never one to disappear into the woodwork, launched a very successful chain of restaurants and eventually ran for public office in Washington state. I think people expected us to disappear into the woodwork after the referendum results, but we made sure to stay firmly in the eye of the public.
See also: disappear, woodwork

disappear into thin air

To vanish completely and without a trace. I would give you my stapler, but it seems to have disappeared into thin air.
See also: air, disappear, thin

disappear off the face of the earth

To vanish completely and without a trace. Has anyone talked to Christina lately? It's like she disappeared off the face of the earth.
See also: disappear, earth, face, of, off

disappear without (a) trace

1. To disappear without any indication to one's or something's whereabouts. Police have been searching for two weeks to find a young girl who disappeared without trace from her home in Rochester. Authorities are puzzled by the navy submarine that seemingly disappeared without a trace last Thursday.
2. To be forgotten about by the population as a whole, especially after being very popular. The digital pets fad took the world by storm in the late 1990s, but disappeared without a trace after a few years.
See also: disappear, trace, without

do a disappearing act

To vanish from sight or flee suddenly from a place. My kids always do a disappearing act when I tell them it's time for their chores. The three of us did a disappearing act, heading for the Mexican border so we could leave this all behind us.
See also: act, disappear

pull a disappearing act

To depart or go away very suddenly or without warning, especially so as to avoid doing something. My roommate loves to throw parties here, but she always pulls a disappearing act the next day when everything needs to be cleaned up! Brian is nearly two weeks late finishing his sales report—that's why he's been pulling a disappearing act whenever the boss is around.
See also: act, disappear, pull
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

disappear from something

to vanish from something or some place, especially from sight, view, or the face of the earth; to have been taken away from something. Jack disappeared all of a sudden last week, as if from the face of the earth. The car pulled away and disappeared from sight down the road.
See also: disappear
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

do a disappearing act

Vanish, as in As soon as the teacher came outside, Mary did a disappearing act. This expression describes a sudden disappearance as if by magic and presumably alludes to a magician's performance. [Colloquial; early 1900s]
See also: act, disappear
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

do a disappearing act

go away without being seen to go, especially when someone is looking for you.
The suggestion here is that the person has vanished as completely and inexplicably as things vanish in a magician's act.
See also: act, disappear
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

do/perform/stage a disapˈpearing/ˈvanishing act

(informal) go away or be impossible to find when people need or want you: Ian always does a disappearing act when it’s time to wash the dishes.This refers to a magic trick done by a magician in which they make themselves or another person disappear.
See also: act, disappear, perform, stage, vanish

disappear/vanish off the face of the ˈearth

disappear completely: Keep looking — they can’t just have vanished off the face of the earth.
See also: disappear, earth, face, of, off, vanish

disappear, etc. into thin ˈair

disappear, etc. suddenly and in a mysterious way: The money vanished into thin air. Nobody knows what happened to it.
See also: air, thin
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

do a disappearing act

Informal
To vanish.
See also: act, disappear
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.
See also:
  • disappear from
  • disappear from (something)
  • addict
  • addict (one) to (something)
  • addict to
  • can of worms
  • can of worms, it's a/like opening a
  • a can of worms
  • get someone's back up
  • have back up
References in classic literature
Elizabeth watched the motion of the batteau as it pulled from the shore, letting loose its rope as it went, but it soon disappeared in the darkness, when the ear was her only guide to its evolutions.
Pioneers
Now and again he disappeared only to reappear once more.
Adventures Of Pinocchio
All still remained silent, the eyes of all were turned in the direction where the vessel had disappeared, endeavoring in vain to penetrate the darkness.
For an instant, without an exclamation, without a cry for help, Athos tried to sustain himself on the surface of the waters, but the weight dragged him down; he disappeared by degrees; soon nothing was to be seen except his long, floating hair; then both men disappeared and the bubbling of the water, which, in its turn, was soon effaced, alone indicated the spot where these two had sunk.
Twenty Years After
The engineer whistled, the train started, and soon disappeared, mingling its white smoke with the eddies of the densely falling snow.
Around The World In Eighty Days
The very last inequalities of the soil disappeared with the setting sun, whose horizontal rays stretched in long lines of fire over the flat immensity.
Five Weeks in a Balloon
We've a small army looking for the fellow, but it does seem as though he had disappeared off the face of the earth.
The Vanished Messenger
Then all his suspicions were confirmed; the road by which the carriage had disappeared encircled the forest.
Three Musketeers
Soon the waves of the bay disappeared behind a bend of rising ground, and the Floridan "champagne" alone offered itself to view.
At length these denizens of the swamps disappeared in their turn; smaller trees became thinly scattered among less dense thickets-- a few isolated groups detached in the midst of endless plains over which ranged herds of startled deer.
From The Earth To The Moon
The lodgers had disappeared very quickly--Ferdishenko soon after the events at Nastasia Philipovna's, while the prince went to Moscow, as we know.
The Idiot
I get IG, but why even take a video and post if it's only going to disappear?
Lea Salonga reminds youth: Instead of posting disappearing stories, 'live real life as it happens'
Their two young children cried and watched their parents disappear. A petition filed in that case is before the Islamabad High Court, which has repeatedly demanded that the whereabouts of the couple be revealed and that they be brought before the court.
The 'not-yet-disappeared'
Over 50 titles will disappear, but these are the few that you will want to add to your queue before they leave Netflix.
Top 8 Movies And TV Shows Leaving Netflix In August
New messages will disappear from this conversation 15 minutes after being sent." The images also suggest that users will get to choose how long their messages will remain visible to other users.
Facebook Messenger may soon offer disappearing messages