Definition of "appear"

appear

/əˈpɪə/

verb
third-person singular simple present appears, present participle appearing, simple past and past participle appeared
1. (intransitive) To come or be in sight; to be in view; to become visible.
  Quotations
  And God […] said, Let […] the dry land appear.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Genesis 1:9
  There were also particles no one had predicted that just appeared. Five of them […, i]n order of increasing modernity, […] are the neutrino, the pi meson, the antiproton, the quark and the Higgs boson.
  2012 March-April, Jeremy Bernstein, “A Palette of Particles”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 146
2. (intransitive) To come before the public.
  Quotations
  Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.
  1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 2, in The Affair at the Novelty Theatre‎
3. (intransitive) To stand in presence of some authority, tribunal, or superior person, to answer a charge, plead a cause, etc.; to present oneself as a party or advocate before a court, or as a person to be tried.
  Quotations
  We must all appear before the judgment seat.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], 2 Corinthians 5:10
  One ruffian escaped because no prosecutor dared to appear.
  1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 12, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans
4. (intransitive) To become visible to the apprehension of the mind; to be known as a subject of observation or comprehension, or as a thing proved; to be obvious or manifest.
  Quotations
  It doth not yet appear what we shall be.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], 1 John 3:2
  Of their vain contest appeared no end.
  1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
  ‘Then the father has a great fight with his terrible conscience,’ said Munday with granite seriousness. ‘Should he make a row with the police […]? Or should he say nothing about it and condone brutality for fear of appearing in the newspapers?
  1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 18, in The China Governess‎
  Surprisingly, this analysis revealed that acute exposure to solvent vapors at concentrations below those associated with long-term effects appears to increase the risk of a fatal automobile accident. Furthermore, this increase in risk is comparable to the risk of death from leukemia after long-term exposure to benzene, […] .
  2013 July-August, Philip J. Bushnell, “Solvents, Ethanol, Car Crashes & Tolerance”, in American Scientist
5. (intransitive, copulative) To seem; to have a certain semblance; to look.
  Quotations
  They disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Matthew 6:16
  Mr. Campion appeared suitably impressed and she warmed to him. He was very easy to talk to with those long clown lines in his pale face, a natural goon, born rather too early she suspected.
  1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 5, in The China Governess‎
6. (transitive) To bring into view.
  Quotations
  [Angelo] is yet a devil / His filth within being cast, he would appear / A pond as deep as hell.
  c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene i]

Definition of "appear"

appear

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