airy-fairy

[ air-ee-fair-ee ]

adjective

Informal. delicate or lovely: an airy-fairy actress;an airy-fairy nightgown.
Informal. not based on reality or concerned with mundane affairs; unrealistic: He'd better get rid of those airy-fairy ideas about spending a fortune that isn't even his.

Slang: Disparaging and Offensive. effeminate.

Origin of airy-fairy

First recorded in 1830–40, perhaps originally in the phrase “airy, fairy Lilian” in Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem “Lilian” (1830)

Words Nearby airy-fairy

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use airy-fairy in a sentence

Nothing of the tootsey-wootsey about her foot, and nothing of the airy-fairy trifle about her slipper.
Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son | George Horace Lorimer
The airy fairy fancies of happy Dreamland never grow old; they, like the glorious stars above us, are always young.
The Lilac Fairy Book | Andrew Lang
There is nothing more beautiful than the airy-fairy soap-bubble with its everchanging colors.
How Two Boys Made Their Own Electrical Apparatus | Thomas M. (Thomas Matthew) St. John
The happiness of those lovely little airy fairy creatures was without alloy.
Birds of the Plains | Douglas Dewar
I congratulate you and Mrs. Starbuck also on airy fairy Lilian, who makes, I believe, the third.
The Letters of William James, Vol. II | William James

British Dictionary definitions for airy-fairy

airy-fairy

/ (ˈɛərɪˈfɛərɪ) /

adjective

informal fanciful and unrealistic: an airy-fairy scheme
delicate to the point of being insubstantial; light

Origin of airy-fairy

C19: from Tennyson's poem Lillian (1830), where the central figure is described as "Airy, fairy Lillian"

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Browse