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fairy |
4 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Fairy \Fair"y\, a. 1. Of or pertaining to fairies. 2. Given by fairies; as fairy money. --Dryden. {Fairy bird} (Zo["o]l.), the Euoropean little tern ({Sterna minuta}); -- called also {sea swallow}, and {hooded tern}. {Fairy bluebird}. (Zo["o]l.) See under {Bluebird}. {Fairy martin} (Zo["o]l.), a European swallow ({Hirrundo ariel}) that builds flask-shaped nests of mud on overhanging cliffs. {Fairy} {rings or circles}, the circles formed in grassy lawns by certain fungi (as {Marasmius Oreades}), formerly supposed to be caused by fairies in their midnight dances. {Fairy shrimp} (Zo["o]l.), 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. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: 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. The God of her has made an end And fro this worlde's fairy Hath taken her into company. --Gower. 2. The country of the fays; land of illusions. [Obs.] He [Arthur] is a king y-crowned in Fairy. --Lydgate. 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}. The fourth kind of spirit [is] called the Fairy. --K. James. And now about the caldron sing, Like elves and fairies in a ring. --Shak. 5. An enchantress. [Obs.] --Shak. {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}. No goblin or swart fairy of the mine Hath hurtful power over true virginity. --Milton. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: fairy adj : or or pertaining to or resembling (especially in delicacy) a fairy or fairies [syn: {faery}, {fearie}] n 1: small human in form playful, having magical powers [syn: {faery}, {faerie}, {sprite}] 2: a disparaging term for an openly homosexual man [syn: {fagot}, {faggot}, {fag}, {pansy}, {queer}, {poof}, {poove}, {pouf}] 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.
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