airy-fairy

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adjective

Informal.

delicate or lovely: an airy-fairy actress; an airy-fairy nightgown.

not based on reality or concerned with mundane affairs; unrealistic: airy-fairy ideas about spending a fortune that isn't even his.

Slang. effeminate; swishy.

Origin:
perhaps orig. in the phrase “airy, fairy Lilian” in Tennyson's poem “Lilian” (1830)

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To airy-fairy

Collins

World English Dictionary

airy-fairy (ˈɛərɪˈfɛərɪ)

—*adj*
1.	informal fanciful and unrealistic: an airy-fairy scheme
2.	delicate to the point of being insubstantial; light

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

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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00:10

Airy-fairy is always a great word to know.

So is quincunx. Does it mean:

an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.

a fool or simpleton; ninny.

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Slang Dictionary

airy-fairy definition

mod.
insubstantial; of wishful thinking. : I don't care to hear any more of your airy-fairy ideas.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Example sentences

And there is nothing airy-fairy about a spell in prison.

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"Although the same exemplary figures are found in both and equally miraculous events occur in both, there is a crucial difference in the way these are communicated. Put simply, the dominant feeling a myth conveys is: this is absolutely unique; it could not have happened to any other person, or in any other setting; such events are grandiose, awe-inspiring, and could not possibly happen to an ordinary mortal like you or me. The reason is not so much that what takes place is miraculous, but that it is described as such. By contrast, although the events which occur in fairy tales are often unusual and most improbable, they are always presented as ordinary, something that could happen to you or me or the person next door when out on a walk in the woods. Even the most remarkable encounters are related in casual, everyday ways in fairy tales."

-Bruno Bettelheim

airy-fairy

air·y-fair·y

airy-fairy definition