Rare
WordNet
adjective
(1) Not widely distributed
"Rare herbs"
"Rare patches of green in the desert"
(2) Not widely known; especially valued for its uncommonness
"A rare word"
"Rare books"
(3) (of meat) cooked a short time; still red inside
"Rare roast beef"
(4) Recurring only at long intervals
"A rare appearance"
"Total eclipses are rare events"
(5) Marked by an uncommon quality; especially superlative or extreme of its kind
"What is so rare as a day in June"-J.R.Lowell
"A rare skill"
"An uncommon sense of humor"
"She was kind to an uncommon degree"
(6) Having low density
"Rare gasses"
"Lightheaded from the rarefied mountain air"
WiktionaryText
Etymology 1
rare from rarus "loose, spaced apart, thin, infrequent". Replaced native gesen "rare, scarce" (from gǣsne), seld "rare, uncommon" (from selden), and seldsene "rare, rarely seen, infrequent" (from sialdsēnn).
Adjective
- Very uncommon; scarce.
- Cooked very lightly, so the meat is still red (in the case of beef).
Verb
- To rear, rise up, start backwards.
- 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, p. 328:
- Frank pretended to rare back as if bedazzled, shielding his eyes with a forearm.
- 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, p. 328:
- To rear, bring up, raise.
Adjective
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