dematerialize
/diːməˈtɪərɪəlʌɪz
/(also dematerialise)
verb [no object]
1Become free of physical substance.Radio words dematerialize, lost the moment they're uttered....
- Many reports have come back that the Plates ‘disappear’ or actually dematerialize.
1.1(In science fiction) disappear by means of some imagined technological process: he watched the time machine dematerialize...
- With that he dematerialized once again and disappeared, obviously happy that he didn't have to hide any longer.
- The figure watched them go and dematerialized into the wind once again with a sinister laugh.
- Specters sometimes drifted throughout the area, watching him with disconcertingly blank faces of incorporeal ectoplasm and dematerializing seconds later.
1.2 [with object] Replace (physical records or certificates) with a paperless computerized system: (as adjective dematerialized) a dematerialized stock lending service...
- The distinction between a material and dematerialized economy is, I think, a false one.
- If securities are represented by a global note or are dematerialized, then bailment is not an appropriate characterization, even in the simplest of cases governed by English law.
- What was solid fact on Sunday had dematerialised by Monday.
Derivatives
dematerialization
- As a historian, how do you feel about the so-called disappearance, dematerialization, or deobjectification of the artwork?
- The disappearing logo might just be the canary in the coal mine signifying the dematerialization of music.
- It's not that the need for food, water and shelter disappears with dematerialization; on the contrary, dematerialization is predicated on a certain level of material well-being.