rare
Pronunciation Etymology 1
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Pronunciation Etymology 1
From Middle English rare, from Old French rare, rere, from Latin rārus, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reh₁-.
Adjectiverare (comparative rarer, superlative rarest)
- Very uncommon; scarce.
- Black pearls are very rare and therefore very valuable.
- Synonyms: scarce, selcouth, seld, selly, geason, uncommon, Thesaurus:rare
- Antonyms: common, frequent, Thesaurus:common
- (of a gas) Thin; of low density.
- (UK, slang) Good; enjoyable.
- 1981, Chris Difford (lyrics), Glenn Tilbrook (vocal), "Vanity Fair" (song):
- Sees her reflection in a butcher shop.
- She finds it all quite rare
- That her meat's all vanity fair.
- 1981, Chris Difford (lyrics), Glenn Tilbrook (vocal), "Vanity Fair" (song):
- French: rare, peu commun
- German: selten, rar
- Italian: raro
- Portuguese: raro
- Russian: ре́дкий
- Spanish: escaso, raro, insólito, inusual, infrecuente, inhabitual
- German: verdünnt
- Portuguese: rarefeito
- Russian: разрежённый
rare (plural rares)
- (gaming) A scarce or uncommon item.
- 1995, George Baxter, Larry W. Smith, Mastering Magic Cards, page 116:
- Most of the time, you do this by trading low-valued rares for more valuable ones or trading uncommons for rares. Other times it's trading cards that are in print for ones that are out of print, or low-value rares for good uncommons.
From a dialectal variant of rear, from Middle English rere, from Old English hrēr, hrēre, from hrēran, from Proto-Germanic *hrōzijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱroHs-.
Adjectiverare (comparative rarer, superlative rarest)
- (cooking) Particularly of meat, especially beefsteak: cooked very lightly, so the meat is still red.
- Antonyms: well done
- 1717, John Dryden, “Book VIII. [The Story of Baucis and Philemon.]”, in Ovid's Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC ↗, page 285 ↗:
- Then Curds and Cream, the Flow'r of Country Fare, / And new-laid Eggs, which Baucis’ buſie Care / Turn’d by a gentle Fire, and roaſted rare.
- French: saignant
- German: blutig, englisch
- Italian: al sangue
- Portuguese: mal passado
- Russian: непрожаренный
- Spanish: crudo, poco hecho
Variant of rear.
Verbrare (rares, present participle raring; simple past and past participle rared)
- (US, intransitive) To rear, rise up, start backwards.
- 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 328:
- Frank pretended to rare back as if bedazzled, shielding his eyes with a forearm.
- (US, transitive) To rear, bring up, raise.
rare
- (obsolete) Early.
- 1614–1615, Homer, “The Sixth Book of Homer’s Odysseys”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer's Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC ↗; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volume I, London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857, →OCLC ↗, page 147 ↗, lines 420–423:
- The men, that sway / In work of those tools that so fit our state, / Are rude mechanicals, that rare and late / Work in the market-place;
- The spelling has been modernized.
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