FAIRY


Meaning of FAIRY in English

I. ˈfa(a)rē, ˈfer-, ˈfār-, -ri noun

( -es )

Etymology: Middle English faierie, fairie fairyland, fairy people, enchantment, from Old French faerie, faierie, from fee, feie, fayee fairy (from Latin Fata goddess of fate, from fatum fate) + -erie -ery — more at fate

1. : a mythical being of folklore and romance usually having diminutive human form and magic powers and dwelling on earth in close relationship with man:

a. : a dwarf creature typically having green clothes and hair, living underground or in stone heaps, and usually exercising his magic powers to benevolent ends

b. : a diminutive sprite usually in the shape of a delicate beautiful ageless winged woman dressed in diaphanous white clothing, inhabiting fairyland, but making usually benevolent intervention in personal human affairs

c. : a tiny mischievous and protective creature in a household usually associated with the hearth — compare brownie , elf , goblin , leprechaun , puck

2. : fairy green

3.

a. : homosexual

b. : a markedly effeminate man suspected of homosexual tendencies

II. adjective

1. : of or relating to a fairy : being a fairy

the sprite made his fairy home in the cleft of an ancient tree

the nuptials of the fairy queen

2. : resembling or suggestive of a fairy in its delicacy or grace

their porcelains … showed a subtle fairy fragility — Time

the viaduct comes into view, so slender, so exquisitely graceful, that … it seems a mere fairy thing — O.S.Nock

Webster's New International English Dictionary.      Новый международный словарь английского языка Webster.