[f. the vb.]
1. Disappearing from sight or from existence.
1434. Misyn, Mending Life, 108. So þat þou sulde … despyse abidynge þingis & to vanischynge þingis drawes.
1567. Trial Treas. (Percy Soc.), 18. To seke such thinges as be permanent, And not such as are of a vanishing kinde.
1571. Golding, Calvin on Ps. lxi. 6. Not a vanishing prosperitie, but a stedye and substantiall gladnesse.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 124. If they remaine abroad in the aire,… they grow as light as any vanishing or softer substance.
1658. Rowland, trans. Moufet’s Theat. Ins., 951. The uncertainty of this vanishing life.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), II. 75. Casting at me a vanishing glance, she was out of sight in an instant.
1833. Rush, Human Voice (ed. 2), 263. Of the Vanishing Stress. Ibid., 285. Of the Vanishing Emphasis.
1879. Geo. Eliot, Theo. Such, vi. 129. To make the discomfort … a vanishing quality.
1887. Athenæum, 8 Oct., 461/1. Only a vanishing remnant lingers in the South Pacific.
2. Math. Becoming zero.
1823. J. Mitchell, Dict. Math. & Phys. Sci., s.v., We have the following rule for finding the value of vanishing fractions.
1838. Penny Cycl., X. 403/1. Much discussion has arisen as to whether vanishing fractions have values or not.
1892. J. Edwards, Diff. Calculus (ed. 2), i. 5. When the limit of a quantity is zero…, the quantity is said to be a vanishing quantity for those values.
Hence Vanishingly adv.
1870. trans. Clausius, in Lond., etc., Philos. Mag., Aug., 127. The divisor t … must accordingly cause the term to become vanishingly small with very great values of t.
1881. Shairp, Asp. Poetry, viii. 239. Some momentary gleam … that has fleeted vanishingly over earth and sea.
