King James Bible Dictionary

RARE, adjective [Latin rarus, thin.]

1. Uncommon; not frequent; as a rare event; a rare phenomenon.

2. Unusually excellent; valuable to a degree seldom found.

RARE work, all fill'd with terror and delight.

Above the rest I judge one beauty rare

3. Thinly scattered.

4. Thin; porous; not dense; as a rare and attenuate substance.

Water is nineteen times lighter and by consequence nineteen times rarer than gold.

5. Nearly raw; imperfectly roasted or boiled; as rare beef or mutton; eggs roasted rare

RA'REESHOW, noun [rare and show.] A show carried in a box.

RAREFAC'TION, noun [See Rarefy.]

The act or process of expanding or distending bodies, by separating the parts and rendering the bodies more rare or porous, by which operation they appear under a larger bulk, or require more room, without an accession of new matter; opposed to condensation; as the rarefaction of air.

RAR'EFIABLE, adjective Capable of being rarefied.

RAR'EFY, verb transitive [Latin rarefacio; rarus, rare, and facio, to make.]

To make thin and porous or less dense; to expand or enlarge a body without adding to it any new portion of its own matter; opposed to condense.

RAR'EFY, verb intransitive To become thin and porous.

RAR'EFYING, participle present tense Making thin or less dense.

RA'RELY, adverb

1. Seldom; not often; as things rarely seen.

2. Finely; nicely. [little used.]

RA'RENESS, noun

1. The state of being uncommon; uncommonness; infrequency.

And let the rareness the small gift commend.

2. Value arising from scarcity.

3. Thinness; tenuity; as the rareness of air or vapor.

4. Distance from each other; thinness.

RA'RERIPE, adjective

Early ripe; ripe before others, or before the usual season.

RA'RERIPE, noun An early fruit, particularly a kind of peach which ripens early.