See Also: BEGINNINGS/ENDINGS, DISPERSAL, ELUSIVENESS

1. Blown away like clouds —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
2. Blows away like a deck of cards in a hurricane —George Garrett
3. Bobbed away like a soap-bubble —Sylvia Plath
4. (The premonition had) boiled off like a puff of bad air —Herbert Lieberman
5. Borne away like a cork on a stream —Lawrence Durrell
6. (The old worlds) died away like dew —Dame Edith Sitwell
7. Disappeared as if into fairyland —Peter Najarian
8. Disappeared … effortlessly, like a star into a cloud —F. van Wyck Mason
9. Disappeared like a sigh —Tom Wolfe
10. [Food being served, vegetables] disappeared like leaves before locusts —Charlotte Brontë
11. Disappeared like raindrops which fall in the ocean —John T. Morse, about the loss of many of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.’s similes and other witticisms
12. Disappeared [huntsmen and hounds into a bewitched forest] like soap bubbles —Anne Sexton
13. Disappeared … like sparks dropped into wet grass —James Crumley
14. Disappearing like the fastest fairy who ever lived —Brian Donleavy See Also: SPEED
15. Disappearing, like water poured out of a wide-necked bottle —Diane Wakoski
16. Disappear like a moon entering a cloud bank —Bernard Malamud
17. Disappear like quicksilver in the cracks —Booth Tarkington
18. Disappear like socks in the laundry —Elyse Sommer
19. Disappear like the dew on the mountain —Anon
20. Drift away into infinity, like a child’s balloon at a circus —Robert Penn Warren
21. Everybody peeled away like an onion —Official of a New York company on reason for his firm’s bankruptcy, New York Times, December 12, 1986
22. (The vision of her early loveliness) faded from reality like dew licked up by the sun —Elinor Wylie
23. Faded like a cloud which has outswept its rain —Percy Bysshe Shelley
24. Faded … like dew upon the sea —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
25. (The restlessness in him) faded like fog before sunshine —Pearl S. Buck
26. (Light would … ) fade like a slow gray curtain dropping —Nelson Algren
27. Fades like the lustre of an evening cloud —William Wordsworth
28. [Awareness of children] fading like old ink —Margaret Atwood
29. (The season) fading like woodwind music —George Garrett
30. Fading like young joy —Dame Edith Sitwell
31. Fall away like forgiven sins —Miller Williams
32. (All your joys start) falling like sand through a sieve —Lorenz Hart

    Hart’s lyric for “A Lady Must Live” from America’s Sweetheart omitted the letter ‘g’ in ‘falling.’

33. Fell away like a wall —Dudley Clendinen, New York Times, March 31, 1985, about a publisher’s declining advertising revenues
34. (Childhood and youth, friendship and love’s first glow, have) fled like sweet dreams —Percy Bysshe Shelley
35. (Any thought I had for such an enterprise) fled like thunder —Richard Ford
36. Flown like a thought —John Keats
37. Fluttered away like flakes of snow —Louis Bromfield
38. [Ceremonial occasions] glide swift into shadow, like sails on the seas —John Greenleaf Whittier
39. (He was) gone again, gone like some shadow the fire had made —Davis Grubb
40. Gone and out of sight like a thought —Richard Ford
41. Gone as a dream is gone from a dreamer wakened with a shout —Lord Dunsany

    ‘Wakened’ has been modernized from ‘waked.’

42. Gone … as if they had evaporated —Dorothy Canfield Fisher
43. (That moment is) gone forever, like lightning that flashed and died, like a snowflake upon the river, like a sunbeam upon the tide —Percy Bysshe Shelley
44. Gone from my gaze like a beautiful dream —George Linley
45. Gone like a flushed toilet —Max Apple
46. Gone like a morning dream, or like a pile of clouds —William Wordsworth
47. Gone like a quick wind —Ursula Le Guin
48. (Our world was) gone like a scrap in the wind —Beryl Markham
49. Gone like a wild bird, like a blowing flame —Euripides
50. [Smile of a loved one] gone like dreams that we forget —William Wordsworth
51. (And all the students) gone, like last week’s snow —Delmore Schwartz
52. Gone like our change at the end of the week —Palmer Cox
53. (Words) gone like sparks burned up in darkness —Jayne Anne Phillips
54. [A funeral procession] gone … like tears in the eyes —Karl Shapiro
55. Gone, like tenants that quit without warning —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
56. Gone, like the life from a busted balloon —Palmer Cox
57. (I am) gone like the shadow when it declines —The Holy Bible /Psalms

    The biblical ‘declineth’ has been modernized.

58. Go out … just like a candle —Lewis Carroll
59. (The Contessina could no longer see him;) it was as though he had slipped from her vision, and the crack had closed above him forever —Elizabeth Bowen
60. (Maybe he wanted her to) lift up, blow away somewhere, like a kite —Margaret Atwood
61. Like a match struck on a stove … faded and was gone —James Agee
62. Like a passing thought she fled —Robert Burns

    Burns’ line has found its way into daily language as “Vanish like a passing thought.”

63. Like a shadow, glided out of view —William Wordsworth
64. Like swallows in autumn they fled, and left the house silent —John Hall Wheelock
65. Lost like stars beyond dark trees —Dante Gabriel Rossetti
66. (Her patience) melted like snow before a blow-torch —Julia O’Faolain
67. (Money) melting away like butter in the sun —Bertolt Brecht
68. Off and away like a frightened fish —Ogden Nash
69. Pass as if it had never existed, like a fart in a gale of wind —Richard Russo
70. Pass away like clouds before the wind —William Wordsworth
71. Passed like a ghost from view —John Greenleaf Whittier
72. (The wild part of her had) perished like burned grass —Ellen Glasgow
73. (Life was) receding … as the sea abruptly withdraws, abandoning a rock it has caressed too long —Françoise Sagan
74. Receding like a bad dream —Anon
75. (He felt the distress and suspicions of the previous night) receding like a tempest —George Santayana
76. [Sounds] receding like the image of a man between two mirrors —Frank Conroy
77. Sank like lead into the sea —Brian Moore
78. Sank to the bottom as a stone —The Holy Bible/Exodus
79. Scuttle away … like moths —W. D. Snodgrass
80. (The cares that infest the day,) shall fold their tents, like the Arabs, and as silently steal away —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
81. Shrank away like an ill-treated child —W. H. Auden
82. Shrank like an anemone —Derek Lambert
83. Slip away like water —Edna St. Vincent Millay
84. [Thoughts] slipped away … like bushes on the side of a sheer precipice —Edith Wharton
85. Slipping silently away like a thief in a London fog —Jack Whitaker, ABC-TV, about the Goodyear blimp disappearing in the mist above the US Open golf tournament in San Francisco, June 20, 1987
86. Slips away like a snake in a weed-tangle —Robert Penn Warren
87. Slips out of my life like sand —Diane Wakoski
88. A slow fade, like a candle or an icicle —Margaret Atwood
89. (The nights) snapped out of sight like a lizard’s eyelid —Sylvia Plath
90. Suddenly disappeared with a jerk, as if somebody had given her a violent pull from behind —Charles Dickens
91. (Her voice) suddenly disappeared, like a coin in a magic trick —Scott Spencer
92. Vanish … as easily as an eel into sand —Arthur Conan Doyle
93. Vanish as raindrops which fall in the sea —Susan Coolidge
94. Vanish away like the ghost of breath —George Garrett
95. Vanished, ghost-like, into air —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
96. Vanished like a puff of steam —H. G. Wells

    A frequently used alternative is to vanish or leave “Like a puff of wind.”

97. (The stray cat) vanished like a swift, invisible shadow —D. H. Lawrence
98. [Food being served, dessert] vanished like a vision —Charlotte Brontë
99. Vanished like a wisp of vapor —Edith Wharton
100. (He had simply) vanished, like Gaugin —Lynne Sharon Schwartz
101. Vanished like midnight ghosts —Charles Lindbergh

     Lindbergh used the simile in 1927 to describe the flight of a French plane, L’Oiseau Blanc.

102. Vanished like some little bird that has been flushed out of the shrubbery —Mikhail Lermontov
103. Vanished like the last of the buffalo hunters —George Garrett
104. Vanished [out of his mind] like the mist before the rising sun —H. G. Wells
105. [The impression made upon people by a tragedy] vanishes as quickly as a delicious fruit melts in the mouth —Honoré de Balzac
106. Vanishes as rapidly as a road runner in a cartoon —New Yorker, August 26, 1985

     In the “Talk of The Town” column, this referred to the speed with which a book, once finished, disappears from a writer’s mental picture.

107. (Beauty) vanishing like a long sigh —George Garrett
108. Vanish like a changing mood —John Hall Wheelock
109. Vanish like a cocktail before dinner —Anon
110. Vanish like a dew-drop in a rose —Gerald Massey
111. Vanish like a ghost before the sun —P. J. Bailey
112. Vanish like an echo —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
113. Vanish like birds in winter —George Garrett
114. Vanish like lightning —Henry Taylor
115. Vanish like plunging stars —Don Marquis
116. Vanish like raindrops which fall in the sea —Anon
117. Vanish like smoke —Percy Bysshe Shelley
118. Vanish like the Witch of the North —George Garrett
119. Vanish like white soft crowns of dandelions in the wind —George Garrett
120. Vanish like writing in the sand —Anon
121. (My awe of Cruikback) went away like a mist in a high wind —Gerald Kersh
122. Went away like a summer fly —W. B. Yeats
123. Went gloriously away, like lightning from the sky —Edgar Allen Poe
124. [Sense of peace] went out like a shooting star —Edna O’Brien