RARE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.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

... English national customs, and should be studied on that account. The Druid proper was governor, judge, philosopher, expounder, and executioner. The ovaidd, or ovates, were the priests, chiefly concerned in the study of theology and the practice of religion. The bards were heroic poets of rare lyric power; they kept the national traditions in trust, and claimed the second sight and the power of prophecy. Much has been said of their human sacrifices in colossal images of wicker-work—the "immani magnitudine simulacra" of Caesar—which were filled with human victims, and which ...

— English Literature, Considered as an Interpreter of English History - Designed as a Manual of Instruction • Henry Coppee

... The rare smile known only to his closest friends appeared for a moment on the strong face of the hunter as he shook his head and said: "Nay, Peleg, not this time. I fancy there will be other and perhaps greater work soon to be done, and in that you shall have your share. The ...

— Scouting with Daniel Boone • Everett T. Tomlinson

... into their saddles again and went on, riding by sound and the rare glimpses the lightning gave them as it flared through the ...

— The Lure of the Dim Trails • by (AKA B. M. Sinclair) B. M. Bower

... happily and comfortably provided for me in my desolate condition; and that of two ships' companies, who were now cast away upon this part of the world, not one life should be spared but mine. I learned here again to observe, that it is very rare that the providence of God casts us into any condition so low, or any misery so great, but we may see something or other to be thankful for, and may see others in worse circumstances than our own. Such certainly was the case of these men, of whom I could not so much as see room ...

— Robinson Crusoe • Daniel Defoe

... know I that the hope to paint in verse Her praises would but tire The worthiest hand that e'er put forth its pen: Who, in all Memory's richest cells, e'er saw Such angel virtue so rare beauty shrined, As in those eyes, twin symbols of all worth, Sweet ...

— The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch • Petrarch

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