Search Result for "appearance": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (6)

1. outward or visible aspect of a person or thing;
[syn: appearance, visual aspect]

2. the event of coming into sight;

3. formal attendance (in court or at a hearing) of a party in an action;
[syn: appearance, appearing, coming into court]

4. a mental representation;
- Example: "I tried to describe his appearance to the police"

5. the act of appearing in public view;
- Example: "the rookie made a brief appearance in the first period"
- Example: "it was Bernhardt's last appearance in America"

6. pretending that something is the case in order to make a good impression;
- Example: "they try to keep up appearances"
- Example: "that ceremony is just for show"
[syn: appearance, show]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Appearance \Ap*pear"ance\, n. [F. apparence, L. apparentia, fr. apparere. See Appear.] 1. The act of appearing or coming into sight; the act of becoming visible to the eye; as, his sudden appearance surprised me. [1913 Webster] 2. A thing seed; a phenomenon; a phase; an apparition; as, an appearance in the sky. [1913 Webster] 3. Personal presence; exhibition of the person; look; aspect; mien. [1913 Webster] And now am come to see . . . It thy appearance answer loud report. --Milton. [1913 Webster] 4. Semblance, or apparent likeness; external show. pl. Outward signs, or circumstances, fitted to make a particular impression or to determine the judgment as to the character of a person or a thing, an act or a state; as, appearances are against him. [1913 Webster] There was upon the tabernacle, as it were, the appearance of fire. --Num. ix. 15. [1913 Webster] For man looketh on the outward appearance. --1 Sam. xvi. 7. [1913 Webster] Judge not according to the appearance. --John. vii. 24. [1913 Webster] 5. The act of appearing in a particular place, or in society, a company, or any proceedings; a coming before the public in a particular character; as, a person makes his appearance as an historian, an artist, or an orator. [1913 Webster] Will he now retire, After appearance, and again prolong Our expectation? --Milton. [1913 Webster] 6. Probability; likelihood. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] There is that which hath no appearance. --Bacon. [1913 Webster] 7. (Law) The coming into court of either of the parties; the being present in court; the coming into court of a party summoned in an action, either by himself or by his attorney, expressed by a formal entry by the proper officer to that effect; the act or proceeding by which a party proceeded against places himself before the court, and submits to its jurisdiction. --Burrill. --Bouvier. --Daniell. [1913 Webster] To put in an appearance, to be present; to appear in person. To save appearances, to preserve a fair outward show. [1913 Webster] Syn: Coming; arrival; presence; semblance; pretense; air; look; manner; mien; figure; aspect. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

appearance n 1: outward or visible aspect of a person or thing [syn: appearance, visual aspect] 2: the event of coming into sight [ant: disappearance] 3: formal attendance (in court or at a hearing) of a party in an action [syn: appearance, appearing, coming into court] 4: a mental representation; "I tried to describe his appearance to the police" 5: the act of appearing in public view; "the rookie made a brief appearance in the first period"; "it was Bernhardt's last appearance in America" [ant: disappearance, disappearing] 6: pretending that something is the case in order to make a good impression; "they try to keep up appearances"; "that ceremony is just for show" [syn: appearance, show]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

203 Moby Thesaurus words for "appearance": Christophany, Masan, Prospero, Satanophany, accomplishment, achievement, acting, advent, affectation, air, airiness, angelophany, apparent character, apparition, appearances, approach, arrival, aspect, astral, astral spirit, attainment, attitudinizing, avatar, banshee, bearing, bluff, bluffing, cheating, color, coloring, coming, control, countenance, deception, delusion, delusiveness, demeanor, departed spirit, disclosure, disembodied spirit, disguise, display, dissemblance, dissembling, dissemination, dissimulation, duppy, dybbuk, eidolon, embodiment, epiphany, evidence, evincement, expression, exteriority, exteriors, external appearance, externality, externalness, externals, extrinsicality, facade, face, fakery, faking, fallaciousness, false air, false appearance, false front, false image, false light, false show, falseness, falsity, fantasy, features, feigning, feint, fiction, figure, foreignness, form, four-flushing, fraud, front, gaudiness, ghost, gilt, gloss, grateful dead, guide, guise, hant, haunt, hint, humbug, humbuggery, idealization, idolum, illusion, illusionism, illusionist, illusiveness, image, immateriality, imposture, incarnation, incorporeal, incorporeal being, incorporeity, indication, larva, lemures, lineaments, look, looks, magic, magic act, magic show, magician, make-believe, manes, manifestation, manner, masquerade, materialization, mere externals, meretriciousness, mien, mirage, oni, openness, ostent, ostentation, outerness, outside, outward appearance, outward show, outwardness, phantasm, phantasma, phantasmagoria, phantom, phasm, phenomenon, playacting, pneumatophany, poltergeist, pose, posing, posture, presence, prestidigitation, pretense, pretension, pretext, proof, public image, publication, reaching, representation, revelation, revenant, seeming, semblance, shade, shadow, shallowness, sham, shape, show, showing, shrouded spirit, simulacrum, simulation, sleight of hand, sorcerer, sorcery, specious appearance, speciousness, specter, spectral ghost, spirit, spook, sprite, suggestion, superficiality, surface appearance, surface show, theophany, unactuality, unreality, unsubstantiality, vain show, varnish, vision, waking dream, walking dead man, wandering soul, wildest dream, window dressing, wraith, zombie
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

APPEARANCE, practice. Signifies the filing common or special bail to the action. 2. The appearance, with all other subsequent pleadings supposed to take place in court, should (in accordance with the ancient practice) purport to be in term time. It is to be observed, however, that though the proceedings are expressed as if occurring in term time, yet, in fact, much of the business is now done, in periods of vacation. 3. The appearance of the parties is no longer (as formerly) by the actual presence in court, either by themselves or their attorneys; but, it must be remembered, an appearance of this kind is still supposed, and exists in contemplation of law. The appearance is effected on the part of the defendant (when be is not arrested) by making certain formal entries in the proper office of the court, expressing his appearance; 5 Watts & Serg. 215; 1 Scam. R. 250; 2 Seam. R. 462; 6 Port. R. 352; 9 Port. R. 272; 6 Miss. R. 50; 7 Miss. R. 411; 17 Verm. 531; 2 Pike, R. 26; 6 Ala. R. 784; 3 Watts & Serg. 501; 8 Port. R. 442; or, in case of arrest, it may be considered as effected by giving bail to the action. On the part of the plaintiff no formality expressive of appearance is observed. 4. In general, the appearance of either party may be in person or by attorney, and, when by attorney, there is always supposed to be a warrant of attorney executed to the attorney by his client, authorizing such appearance. 5. But to this general rule there are various exceptions; persons devoid of understanding, as idiots, and persons having understanding, if they are by law deprived of a capacity to appoint an attorney, as married women, must appear in person. The appearance of such persons must purport, and is so entered on the record, to be in person, whether in fact an attorney be employed or not. See Tidd's Pr. 68, 75; 1 Arch. Pract. 22; 2 John. 192; 8 John. 418; 14 John. 417; 5 Pick. 413; Bouv. Inst. Index, h.t. 6. There must be an appearance in person in the following cases: 1st. An idiot can appear only in person, and as, a plaintiff he may sue in person or by his next friend 2d. A married woman, when sued without her husband, should defend in person 3 Wms. Saund. 209, b and when the cause of action accrued before her marriage, and she is afterwards sued alone, she must plead her coverture in person, and not by attorney. Co. Litt. 125. 3d. When the party pleads to the jurisdiction, be must plead in person. Summ.on Pl. 51; Merrif. Law of Att. 58. 4th. A plea of misnomer must always be in person, unless it be by special warrant of attorney. 1 Chit. Pl. 398; Summ. on Pl. 50; 3 Wms. Saund. 209 b. 7. An infant cannot appoint an attorney; he must therefore prosecute or appear by guardian, or prochein ami. 8. A lunatic, if of full age, may appear by. attorney; if, under age, by guardian. 2 Wms. Saund. 335; Id. 332 (a) n. (4.) 9. When an appearance is lawfully entered by the defendant, both parties are considered as being in court. Imp. Pr. 215. And if the defendant pleads to issue, defects of process are cured but not, if he demurs to the process, (I Lord Raym. 21,) or, according to the practice of some courts, appears de bene esse, or otherwise conditionally. 10. In criminal cases, the personal presence of the accused is often necessary. It has been held, that if the record of a conviction of a misdemeanor be removed by certiorari, the personal presence of the defendant is necessary, in order to move in arrest. of judgment: but, after a special verdict, it is not necessary that the defendant should be personally present at the argument of it. 2 Burr. 931 1 Bl. Rep. 209, S. C. So, the defendant must appear personally in court, when an order of bastardy is quashed and the reason is, he must enter into a recognizance to abide the order of sessions below. 1 Bl. Rep. 198. So, in a case, when two justices of the peace, having confessed an information for misbehavior in the execution of their office, and a motion was made to dispense with their personal appearance, on their clerks undertaking in court to answer for their flues, the court declared the rule to be, that although such a motion was subject to the discretion of the court either to grant or refuse it, in cases where it is clear that the punishment would not be corporal, yet it ought to be denied in every case where it is either probable or possible that the punishment would be corporal; and therefore the motion was overruled in that case. And Wilmot and Ashton, Justices, thought, that even where the punishment would most probably be pecuniary only, yet in offences of a very gross and public nature, the persons convicted should appear in person, for the sake of example and prevention of the like offences being committed by other persons; as the notoriety of being called up to answer criminally for such offences, would very much conduce to deter others from venturing to commit the like. 3 Burr. 1786, 7.