fairy

• POS: Adjective, Noun
• HYPHEN: fair=y

CIDE DICTIONARY

fairy, n. [OE. fairie, faierie, enchantment, fairy folk, fairy, OF. faerie enchantment, F. féer, fr. LL. Fata one of the goddesses of fate. See Fate, and cf. Fay a fairy.].

•  Enchantment; illusion.  Chaucer.  [1913 Webster]

  "The God of her has made an end,
  And fro this worlde's fairy
  Hath taken her into company."  [1913 Webster]
•  The country of the fays; land of illusions.  [1913 Webster]

  "He [Arthur] is a king y-crowned in Fairy."  [1913 Webster]
•  An imaginary supernatural being or spirit, supposed to assume a human form (usually diminutive), either male or female, and to meddle for good or evil in the affairs of mankind; a fay. See Elf, and Demon.  [1913 Webster]

  "The fourth kind of spirit [is] called the Fairy."  [1913 Webster]

  "And now about the caldron sing,
  Like elves and fairies in a ring."  [1913 Webster]
•  An enchantress.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]

Fairy of the mine, an imaginary being supposed to inhabit mines, etc. German folklore tells of two species; one fierce and malevolent, the other gentle, See Kobold.

fairy, a. 

•  Of or pertaining to fairies.  [1913 Webster]
•  Given by fairies; as, fairy money.  Dryden.  [1913 Webster]

Fairy bird (Zoöl.), the Euoropean little tern (Sterna minuta); -- called also sea swallow, and hooded tern. -- Fairy bluebird. (Zoöl.) See under Bluebird. -- Fairy martin (Zoöl.), a European swallow (Hirrundo ariel) that builds flask-shaped nests of mud on overhanging cliffs. -- Fairy rings or Fairy circles, the circles formed in grassy lawns by certain fungi (as Marasmius Oreades), formerly supposed to be caused by fairies in their midnight dances; also, the mushrooms themselves. Such circles may have diameters larger than three meters. -- Fairy shrimp (Zoöl.), a European fresh-water phyllopod crustacean (Chirocephalus diaphanus); -- so called from its delicate colors, transparency, and graceful motions. The name is sometimes applied to similar American species. -- Fairy stone (Paleon.), an echinite.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

fairy, n. & adj.
--n. (pl. -ies)
1 a small imaginary being with magical powers.
2 sl. derog. a male homosexual.
--adj. of fairies, fairy-like, delicate, small.

Idiom

fairy cake a small individual iced sponge cake. fairy cycle a small bicycle for a child. fairy godmother a benefactress. fairy lights small coloured lights esp. for outdoor decoration. fairy ring a ring of darker grass caused by fungi. fairy story (or tale)
1 a tale about fairies.
2 an incredible story; a fabrication.

Derivative

fairy-like adj.

Etymology

ME f. OF faerie f. fae FAY

DEVIL DICTIONARY

fairy

n. A creature, variously fashioned and endowed, that formerly inhabited the meadows and forests. It was nocturnal in its habits, and somewhat addicted to dancing and the theft of children. The fairies are now believed by naturalist to be extinct, though a clergyman of the Church of England saw three near Colchester as lately as 1855, while passing through a park after dining with the lord of the manor. The sight greatly staggered him, and he was so affected that his account of it was incoherent. In the year 1807 a troop of fairies visited a wood near Aix and carried off the daughter of a peasant, who had been seen to enter it with a bundle of clothing. The son of a wealthy _bourgeois_ disappeared about the same time, but afterward returned. He had seen the abduction been in pursuit of the fairies. Justinian Gaux, a writer of the fourteenth century, avers that so great is the fairies' power of transformation that he saw one change itself into two opposing armies and fight a battle with great slaughter, and that the next day, after it had resumed its original shape and gone away, there were seven hundred bodies of the slain which the villagers had to bury. He does not say if any of the wounded recovered. In the time of Henry III, of England, a law was made which prescribed the death penalty for "Kyllynge, wowndynge, or mamynge" a fairy, and it was universally respected.

THESAURUS

fairy

Ariel, Befind, Corrigan, Finnbeara, Mab, Oberon, Titania, air, auntie, banshee, bi-guy, bisexual, brownie, bubble, bull dyke, butch, catamite, chaff, chicken, chip, cluricaune, cobweb, cork, down, dust, dwarf, dyke, elf, elfin, elfish, elflike, ether, faery, fag, faggot, fairy queen, fairyish, fairylike, fay, feather, femme, flit, flue, fluff, foam, fricatrice, froth, fruit, fuzz, gnome, gnomelike, gnomish, goblin, gossamer, gremlin, gunsel, hob, homo, homophile, homosexual, homosexualist, imp, invert, kobold, leprechaun, lesbian, mote, nance, ouphe, pansy, pathic, peri, pixie, pixieish, pooka, puca, puck, punk, pwca, queen, queer, sapphist, sponge, sprite, spume, straw, sylph, sylphid, sylphidine, sylphine, sylphish, sylphlike, sylphy, thistledown, tribade

ROGET THESAURUS

fairy

Jupiter

N Jupiter, god, goddess, heathen gods and goddesses, deva, Jupiter, Jove, pantheon, Allah, Bathala, Brahm, Brahma, Brahma, cloud-compeller, Devi, Durga, Kali, oread, the Great Spirit, Ushas, water nymph, wood nymph, Yama, Varuna, Zeus, Vishnu, Siva, Shiva, Krishna, Juggernath, Buddha, Isis, Osiris, Ra, Belus, Bel, Baal, Asteroth, Thor, Odin, Mumbo Jumbo, good genius, tutelary genius, demiurge, familiar, sibyl, fairy, fay, sylph, sylphid, Ariel, peri, nymph, nereid, dryad, seamaid, banshee, benshie, Ormuzd, Oberon, Mab, hamadryad, naiad, mermaid, kelpie, Ondine, nixie, sprite, denizens of the air, pixy, mythology, heathen-mythology, fairy-mythology, Lempriere, folklore, god-like, fairy-like, sylph-like, sylphic, you moonshine revelers and shades of night.

Demon

N demon, daemon, demonry, demonology, evil genius, fiend, familiar, daeva, devil, bad spirit, unclean spirit, cacodemon, incubus, Eblis, shaitan, succubus, succuba, Frankenstein's monster, Titan, Shedim, Mephistopheles, Asmodeus, Moloch, Belial, Ahriman, fury, harpy, Friar Rush, vampire, ghoul, afreet, barghest, Loki, ogre, ogress, gnome, gin, jinn, imp, deev, lamia, bogie, bogeyman, bogle, nis, kobold, flibbertigibbet, fairy, brownie, pixy, elf, dwarf, urchin, Puck, Robin Goodfellow, leprechaun, Cluricaune, troll, dwerger, sprite, ouphe, bad fairy, nix, nixie, pigwidgeon, will-o'-the wisp, ghost, revenant, specter, apparition, spirit, shade, shadow, vision, hobglobin, goblin, orc, wraith, spook, boggart, banshee, loup-garou, lemures, evil eye, merman, mermaid, merfolk, siren, satyr, faun, manito, manitou, manitu, possession, demonic possession, diabolic possession, insanity, Maxwell's demon, demoniac, demonic, demonical, impish, demoniacal, fiendish, fiend-like, supernatural, weird, uncanny, unearthly, spectral, ghostly, ghost-like, elfin, elvin, elfish, elflike, haunted, pokerish, possessed, possessed by a devil, possessed by a demon, demonically.

Sorcerer

N sorcerer, magician, thaumaturgist, theurgist, conjuror, necromancer, seer, wizard, witch, hoodoo, voodoo, fairy, lamia, hag, warlock, charmer, exorcist, mage, cunning man, medicine man, Shaman, figure flinger, ecstatica, medium, clairvoyant, fortune teller, mesmerist, deus ex machina, soothsayer, Katerfelto, Cagliostro, Mesmer, Rosicrucian, Circe, siren, weird sisters.

Imagination

N imagination, originality, invention, fancy, inspiration, verve, warm imagination, heated imagination, excited imagination, sanguine imagination, ardent imagination, fiery imagination, boiling imagination, wild imagination, bold imagination, daring imagination, playful imagination, lively imagination, fertile imagination, fancy, mind's eye, such stuff as dreams are made of, ideality, idealism, romanticism, utopianism, castle-building, dreaming, phrensy, frenzy, ecstasy, extasy, calenture, reverie, trance, day dream, golden dream, somnambulism, conception, Vorstellung, excogitation, a fine frenzy, cloudland, dreamland, flight of fancy, fumes of fancy, thick coming fancies, creation of the brain, coinage of the brain, imagery, conceit, maggot, figment, myth, dream, vision, shadow, chimera, phantasm, phantasy, fantasy, fancy, whim, whimsey, whimsy, vagary, rhapsody, romance, gest, geste, extravaganza, air drawn dagger, bugbear, nightmare, flying Dutchman, great sea serpent, man in the moon, castle in the air, pipe dream, pie-in-the-sky, chateau en Espagne, Utopia, Atlantis, happy valley, millennium, fairyland, land of Prester John, kindgom of Micomicon, work of fiction, Arabian nights, le pot au lait, dream of Alnashar, illusion, phantom, Fata Morgana, vapor, stretch of the imagination, mythogenesis, idealist, romanticist, visionary, mopus, romancer, dreamer, somnambulist, rhapsodist, castle-buildier, fanciful projector, imagined, ben trovato, air drawn, airbuilt, imagining, imaginative, original, inventive, creative, fertile, romantic, high flown, flighty, extravagant, fanatic, enthusiastic, unrealistic, Utopian, Quixotic, ideal, unreal, in the clouds, in nubibus, unsubsantial, illusory, fabulous, legendary, mythical, mythic, mythological, chimerical, imaginary, visionary, notional, fancy, fanciful, fantastic, fantastical, whimsical, fairy, fairy-like, gestic, a change came o'er the spirit of my dream, aegri somnia vana, dolphinum appingit sylvis in fluctibus aprum, fancy light from fancy caught, imagination rules the world, l'imagination gallope, le jugement ne va que le pas, musaeo contingens cuncta lepore, tous songes sont mensonges, Wahrheil und Dichtung, DIVISION II COMMUNICATION OF IDEAS.