appear
1 ENTRIES FOUND:
appears;
appeared;
appearing
appears;
appeared;
appearing
Britannica Dictionary definition of APPEAR
1
[linking verb]
somewhat formal
:
to seem to be something
:
to make someone think that a person or thing has a particular characteristic
:
look,
seem
— often followed by to + verb
-
She appears angry.
-
“Is she angry?” “So it appears.” = “So it would appear.” = “It appears so.”
-
“Is she pleased?” “It appears not.” = “It would appear not.”
-
She appears a nice enough person.
-
Although everything appeared normal to me [=although I thought everything was normal], something was wrong.
-
Winning the election appears unlikely at this point.
-
Things are not always as they appear. [=they are not always what you think they are]
-
It appears to us [=we think] that something should be done.
-
She appeared to be angry.
-
She appears to be a nice enough person.
-
Everyone appeared to have a good time. = They all appeared to enjoy themselves.
2
[no object]
:
to become visible
:
to begin to be seen
—
opposite disappear
-
One by one, the stars appeared in the sky.
-
The sun began to appear from behind the clouds.
-
The airplanes seemed to appear out of nowhere.
-
Her grandfather often appears to her in her dreams. [=she often sees her grandfather in her dreams]
-
The storm disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared.
3
[no object]
:
to arrive at a place
:
to show up
—
opposite disappear
-
The cat appears at our kitchen door every morning.
-
One of the guests appeared a few minutes late.
-
He appeared a little before eight last night.
4
[no object]
:
to begin to exist
—
opposite disappear
-
The disease first appeared in the late 1970s.
-
This new technology first appears in Europe in the early 20th century.
5
[no object]
:
to be seen or heard by the public: such as
a
:
to go where you can be seen to give a speech, answer questions, etc.
— often + before
-
I was invited to appear before a meeting of teachers to talk about the school system.
-
appearing before a group of reporters
b
:
to work as an actor or performer in a movie, on the radio, etc.
-
The two actors appeared [=performed] together in the film.
-
He has appeared on many radio and television shows.
-
She appeared in her first Broadway musical last year.
-
Several guest musicians appeared on his latest album.
c
:
to be published or made available to the public
— often + in
-
The story appeared on the front page of the newspaper.
-
We got a lot of phone calls after the story appeared in the newspaper.
-
Her papers have appeared in several different scientific journals.
-
The book appeared in print [=was published] again a few years ago.
-
The word first appeared in print in 1782.
6
[no object]
:
to go in front of a person or group that has authority (such as a judge or council) especially in order to answer questions
-
I appeared in front of the committee during its last meeting.
-
She was instructed to appear in court the next morning.
-
She appeared before the judge.
-
He will be appearing as a witness at the trial.
