Submarining is when someone who ghosted you suddenly resurfaces and acts as if no disappearance ever happened.
Submarining describes a person who vanishes without explanation, then pops back up later as though nothing went wrong. Like a submarine surfacing, they reappear and resume contact with no acknowledgment of the long gap.
It looks like a casual “hey stranger” text arriving weeks or months after they ghosted, with no apology and no answer for where they went. They simply pick the conversation back up where it dropped.
Submarining is essentially ghosting followed by an unexplained return, which can be confusing and quietly disrespectful. It often suggests the person treats you as an option to revisit whenever it happens to suit them.
You are fully allowed to ask for an explanation before re-engaging with someone who did this. How they handle that simple question tells you a lot about whether they are worth letting back into your life.