Showing results for "airs"

• present tense form of air (3rd person singular).

airs

British  

/ ɛəz /

plural noun

1. affected manners intended to impress others (esp in the phrases give oneself airs, put on airs )

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Explanation

To have airs is to be condescending or arrogant — in other words, to act like you think you're better than other people. If you put on airs, you'll find it hard to make friends. It's most common to find the word airs in the phrase "to put on airs." This basically means to act snobbish or stuck up. Someone who puts on airs is extremely annoying to everyone around him, clearly pretentious and mannered in his attitude. The phrase has been around since the 1780s, and it comes from the French air, "look, appearance, bearing, or tone."

Example Sentences

Sleipnir, in the Scandinavian mythology the horse of Odin, which had eight legs, as representing the wind with its eight principal "airts."

From The Nuttall Encyclopædia Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge by Nuttall, P. Austin

"But o' a' the airts, An' o' a' the pairts, In herts, Whan the tane to the tither says na, An' the north win' begins to blaw."

From Sir Gibbie by MacDonald, George

It was during the honeymoon, as he calls it, that he wrote the beautiful "O a' the airts the wind can blaw."

From The World's Greatest Books — Volume 10 — Lives and Letters by Mee, Arthur

O a' the airts the wind can blaw I dearly like the west, For there Silurian beds abound, The beds that I lo'e best; There's limestone blue, and sandstone too, Wi' slate and shale between.

From Punch - Volume 25 (Jul-Dec 1853) by Various

We get 'a' the airts the wind can blow' up here.

From Rainbow Valley by Montgomery, L. M. (Lucy Maud)