disappearing

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of disappear.

   Fireflies were disappearing one by one as dawn approached.

   The old dialect is disappearing from everyday speech.

   Note

   One spelling does two grammatical jobs. In "the light is disappearing" it is the progressive participle, and in "disappearing is easy" it works as a verbal noun. Usually the verb is intransitive, meaning that things simply vanish. It also has a transitive, euphemistic use, which means abducting or killing someone for political reasons. In that use, "a regime disappearing its critics" describes something far darker than vanishing.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   An instance or process of going out of sight or ceasing to exist.

   The sudden disappearing of funds prompted an internal audit.

   Witnesses described the gradual disappearing of the coastline under rising water.

   Similarloss

   Oppositeappearance, emergence

   Note

   Here the word is a full noun rather than the verb at work. It takes a plural, disappearings, and an article, which sets it apart from the verbal -ing form. Caleb Webb's Discourses on 'the Lord's prayer' (1866) uses that plural to set "sudden and extensive disappearings" against "fresh appearings." The pairing makes each vanishing sound like a separate event in progress.

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