conspicuous by one's absence

English

Phrase

conspicuous by one's absence

1. Raising suspicions by the fact of not being present at an expected place.
   • 1965, R. H. Conquest, Horses in the Kitchen: True Tales of Outback Australia, page 37:

     Occasionally at a bush dance, when the elderly folk were conspicuous by their absence, the M.C. would throw a jazz-garter on the floor, point at some lucky fellow, and shout, 'You have ten seconds to find its mate. A packet of cigarettes if you do'.
     The girls would squeal and giggle and start running; […]

Translations

Translations

• Dutch: schitteren door afwezigheid (verb)
• Finnish: loistaa poissaolollaan (fi) (verb)
• French: briller par son absence (fr) (verb)
• German: durch Abwesenheit glänzen (de) (verb)
• Italian: brillare per la propria assenza (verb)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: glimre ved sitt fravær

• Spanish: brillar por su ausencia (es) (verb)
• Swedish: lysa med sin frånvaro (sv)

Further reading

• “conspicuous by one's absence”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “conspicuous by its absence”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “be conspicuous by your absence”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “be conspicuous by your absence” (US) / “be conspicuous by your absence” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
• “conspicuous by one's absence”, in Collins English Dictionary.