Fairy

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Fairy \Fair"y\, a.
     1. Of or pertaining to fairies.
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     2. Given by fairies; as, fairy money. --Dryden.
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     {Fairy bird} (Zool.), the Euoropean little tern ({Sterna
        minuta}); -- called also {sea swallow}, and {hooded tern}.
        
  
     {Fairy bluebird}. (Zool.) See under {Bluebird}.
  
     {Fairy martin} (Zool.), 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} (Zool.), 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.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Fairy \Fair"y\, n.; pl. {Fairies}. [OE. fairie, faierie,
     enchantment, fairy folk, fairy, OF. faerie enchantment, F.
     f['e]er, fr. LL. Fata one of the goddesses of fate. See
     {Fate}, and cf. {Fay} a fairy.] [Written also {fa["e]ry}.]
     1. Enchantment; illusion. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
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              The God of her has made an end,
              And fro this worlde's fairy
              Hath taken her into company.          --Gower.
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     2. The country of the fays; land of illusions. [Obs.]
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              He [Arthur] is a king y-crowned in Fairy. --Lydgate.
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     3. 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}.
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              The fourth kind of spirit [is] called the Fairy.
                                                    --K. James.
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              And now about the caldron sing,
              Like elves and fairies in a ring.     --Shak.
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     5. An enchantress. [Obs.] --Shak.
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     {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}.
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              No goblin or swart fairy of the mine
              Hath hurtful power over true virginity. --Milton.
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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  fairy
       n 1: small, human in form, playful, having magical powers [syn: {faery},
             {faerie}, {sprite}]
       2: offensive terms for an openly homosexual man [syn: {fagot},
          {faggot}, {fag}, {nance}, {pansy}, {queen}, {queer}, {poof},
           {poove}, {pouf}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  95 Moby Thesaurus words for "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
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  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.