adverb
-
in a jaunty or high-spirited manner
-
in a light or delicate manner
Other Word Forms
- unairily adverb
Etymology
Origin of airily
First recorded in 1760–70; see airy, -ly ( def. )
Explanation
When you do something airily, you do it in a casual, offhanded way. You might hide your excitement at meeting a movie star by airily saying, "Oh, hi." If you speak or behave airily, you give the impression that you don't really care. If a local politician responds airily to a citizen's legitimate concerns about crime, she's likely to suffer some criticism for not taking her constituents seriously enough. Airily comes from airy, originally defined as "with ostentatious air."
Vocabulary lists containing airily
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
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A Streetcar Named Desire
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The Witch of Blackbird Pond
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This led me to be very wary of people airily predicting that democracy was finished, and made me alive to the way that, paradoxically, such nightmares can actually damage democracy.
From Salon • May 7, 2025
Johnson talked of “our concerns with the governance of the state of California,” which he airily blamed for “complicity ... in the scope of disaster.”
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 5, 2025
As for Mr. Heath, Mr. McManus puts a similarly positive gloss on things, talking airily about his affection for his former boss until reminded of his own words in the play’s program notes.
From New York Times • Sep. 24, 2021
When two newspapers reported he had accepted diamonds from self-proclaimed Central African Emperor Bokassa I, Giscard airily refused comment and stopped reading them.
From Seattle Times • Dec. 3, 2020
“Oh, just going round the world, you know,” Mary Poppins said airily, as though going round the world was a thing you did every day.
From "Mary Poppins" by P. L. Travers
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
