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