RARE • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Rare

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adjective

Rare adj. Early. (Obs.) "Rude mechanicals that rare and late Work in the market place."

Rare adj. (compar. rarer; superl. rarest) Nearly raw; partially cooked; not thoroughly cooked; underdone; as, rare beef or mutton. "New-laid eggs, which Baucis' busy care Turned by a gentle fire, and roasted rare." Note: This word is in common use in the United States, but in England its synonym underdone is preferred.

Rare adj. (compar. rarer; superl. rarest)

1.

Not frequent; seldom met with or occurring; unusual; as, a rare event.

2.

Of an uncommon nature; unusually excellent; valuable to a degree seldom found. "Rare work, all filled with terror and delight." "Above the rest I judge one beauty rare."

3.

Thinly scattered; dispersed. "Those rare and solitary, these in flocks."

4.

Characterized by wide separation of parts; of loose texture; not thick or dense; thin; as, a rare atmosphere at high elevations. "Water is nineteen times lighter, and by consequence nineteen times rarer, than gold."

Synonyms: Scarce; infrequent; unusual; uncommon; singular; extraordinary; incomparable. Rare, Scarce. We call a thing rare when but few examples, specimens, or instances of it are ever to be met with; as, a rare plant. We speak of a thing as scarce, which, though usually abundant, is for the time being to be had only in diminished quantities; as, a bad harvest makes corn scarce. "A perfect union of wit and judgment is one of the rarest things in the world." "When any particular piece of money grew very scarce, it was often recoined by a succeeding emperor."

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Etymology of 'Rare'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Rare" Quotes from Famous Books

... ship doth cut, with pleasant gales, Or nimble Barke with swelling sayles: The large-fin'd Chrystall cattell as they goe Are forced whether they will or no With ready dragnet; then with lines of haire They round the Lake, or Nets more rare. ...

— The Odes of Casimire, Translated by G. Hils • Mathias Casimire Sarbiewski

... Whose rare, good gifts have endeared him to all lovers of the English tongue, this volume, historically and practically treating of one of the greatest of plants, as well as the rarest of ...

— Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce • E. R. Billings

... spoke him fair, She sent him on his way; She said as she stood smiling there, You've wealth, and wiles, and wisdom rare, But I have won ...

— Allison Bain - By a Way she knew not • Margaret Murray Robertson

... garrulous woman. The invincibly taciturn woman is so rare as to have escaped objurgation. Yet she too is a terror ...

— Hints for Lovers • Arnold Haultain

... rushing to the hall found the gentlemen-at-arms in consternation also. They had sent to wake their captain, who said from their description that it must have been an earthquake, an occurrence which, although very rare in that country, had taken place almost within the century; and then went to bed again, strange to say, and fell fast asleep without once thinking of Curdie, or associating the noises they had heard with what he had told them. ...

— The Princess and the Goblin • George MacDonald

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