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Lacking in matter or substance; visionary; chimerical.

To make unsubstantial. [R.]

Consisting of air; resembling, or partaking of the nature of air. Hence: Unsubstantial; unreal.

Symbolically: Something unsubstantial, light, or volatile. "Charm ache with air." Shak. He was still all air and fire. Macaulay . [Air and fire being the finer and quicker elements as opposed to earth and water.]

Resembling air; thin; unsubstantial; not material; airlike. "An airy spirit." Shak.

Built of, or in, the clouds; airy; unsubstantial; imaginary. Cowper. So vanished my cloud-built palace. Goldsmith.

That which is thin and unsubstantial, or flimsy and worthless; rubbish. The dust and cobwebs of that uncivil age. Sir P. Sidney.

e mind; deceptive; beguiling; delusory; as, delusive arts; a delusive dream. Delusive and unsubstantial ideas. Whewell. -- De*lu"sive*ly, adv. -- De*lu"sive*ness, n.

Destitute of reality, or real existence; unsubstantial; as, empty dreams.

to, composed of, or resembling, work in filigree; as, a filigree basket. Hence: Fanciful; unsubstantial; merely decorative. You ask for reality, not fiction and filigree work. J. C. Shairp.

Spun so as to be fine; drawn to a fine thread; attenuated; hence, unsubstantial; visionary; as, finespun theories.

Weak; feeble; limp; slight; vain; without strength or solidity; of loose and unsubstantial structure; without reason or plausibility; as, a flimsy argument, excuse, objection. Proud of a vast extent of flimsy lines. Pope. All the flimsy furniture of a country miss's brain. Sheridan.

Something insipid, or not worth having; empty compliment; trash; unsubstantial talk of writing. The flummery of modern criticism. J. Morley.

Like a leaf; thin; unsubstantial. [R.] Sir T. Browne.

Light, unsubstantial matter. Tusser. Froth insect (Zoöl.), the cuckoo spit or frog hopper; -- called also froth spit, froth worm, and froth fly. -- Froth spit. See Cuckoo spit, under Cuckoo.

Of the nature of froth; light; empty; unsubstantial; as, a frothy speaker or harangue. Tillotson.

Anything vaporlike, unsubstantial, or' airy; idle conceit; vain imagination. A show of fumes and fancies. Bacon.

Any faint shadowy semblance; an unsubstantial image; a phantom; a glimmering; as, not a ghost of a chance; the ghost of an idea. Each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. Poe.

Unsubstantial; not real or strong. "Insubstantial pageant." [R.] Shak.

Unsubstantiality; unreality. [R.]