disappearing act
Poof, then nothing
A disappearing act is a sudden, often unexplained departure or vanishing.
The term comes from stage magic, where performers make objects or themselves vanish.
In everyday use, it describes someone who becomes unreachable or absent without warning: He pulled a disappearing act right before the project deadline.
The phrase usually carries a note of frustration or humor about the person's evasion.
- vanishCease to be visible
- ghostingAbruptly ceasing all communication
- escapologyArt of freeing oneself
- stageRaised performance platform
- without a traceDisappeared leaving no sign
into thin air · French leave · do a runner · escape · abscond · escape artist · misdirection · Harry Houdini · departing · exiting · slipping away · smoke · gone missing · invisibility · evaporate · sleight of hand · illusionist · trick
- disappearingvanish, fade, vanishing, evaporate, gone
- illusionsmirage, optical illusion, hallucination, illusion, afterimage
- disappearing actvanish, fade, dissolve, evaporate, magic act
- tricksmagic trick, card trick, card tricks, coin trick, rope trick
- stage illusionstrap door, levitation, smoke and mirrors, mirror trick, sawing in half
- optical illusionsoptical illusion, optical illusions, trompe l'oeil, impossible stairs, duck-rabbit
disappearing actreappearance
Coming back into view
grand entrance · dramatic entrance · arrival · emergence · showing up
disappearing actbeing there
State of attending
showing up · sticking around · staying power · reliability · standing by
disappear, disappeared, disappearing, reappearance, disappearance, disappears, reappearing, vanishing act