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AIRY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
Irregular inflected forms: airier , airiest
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Characterized by lightness and insubstantiality; as impalpable or intangible as air
Example:
physical rather than ethereal forms
Synonyms:
aerial; aeriform; aery; airy; ethereal
Classified under:
Similar:
insubstantial; unreal; unsubstantial (lacking material form or substance; unreal)
Derivation:
airiness (the property of something weightless and insubstantial)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Having little or no perceptible weight; so light as to resemble air
Example:
airy gauze curtains
Classified under:
Similar:
light (of comparatively little physical weight or density)
Derivation:
airiness (the property of something weightless and insubstantial)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Not practical or realizable; speculative
Example:
visionary schemes for getting rich
Synonyms:
airy; impractical; Laputan; visionary; windy
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
utopian (characterized by or aspiring to impracticable perfection)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Open to or abounding in fresh air
Example:
airy rooms
Synonyms:
aired; airy
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
ventilated (exposed to air)
Derivation:
air (a slight wind (usually refreshing))
airiness (the property of something spacious and abounding in fresh air)
Context examples:
And that night they worked till half-past ten, dipping "fancy starch"—all the frilled and airy, delicate wear of ladies.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
I am glad to think the Loves and Graces took such airy forms in its homely procession.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
She looked forward to our union with placid contentment, not unmingled with a little fear, which past misfortunes had impressed, that what now appeared certain and tangible happiness might soon dissipate into an airy dream and leave no trace but deep and everlasting regret.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
I should be unwilling, I own, to live in any other part of the town;—there is hardly any other that I could be satisfied to have my children in: but we are so remarkably airy!
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Though there was nothing very airy about Miss Murdstone, she was a perfect Lark in point of getting up.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
We are so very airy!
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
The venerable cathedral towers, and the old jackdaws and rooks whose airy voices made them more retired than perfect silence would have done; the battered gateways, one stuck full with statues, long thrown down, and crumbled away, like the reverential pilgrims who had gazed upon them; the still nooks, where the ivied growth of centuries crept over gabled ends and ruined walls; the ancient houses, the pastoral landscape of field, orchard, and garden; everywhere—on everything—I felt the same serener air, the same calm, thoughtful, softening spirit.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
She looked so quiet and good, and reminded me so strongly of my airy fresh school days at Canterbury, and the sodden, smoky, stupid wretch I had been the other night, that, nobody being by, I yielded to my self-reproach and shame, and—in short, made a fool of myself.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Now I was ragged, wanting to sell Dora matches, six bundles for a halfpenny; now I was at the office in a nightgown and boots, remonstrated with by Mr. Spenlow on appearing before the clients in that airy attire; now I was hungrily picking up the crumbs that fell from old Tiffey's daily biscuit, regularly eaten when St. Paul's struck one; now I was hopelessly endeavouring to get a licence to marry Dora, having nothing but one of Uriah Heep's gloves to offer in exchange, which the whole Commons rejected; and still, more or less conscious of my own room, I was always tossing about like a distressed ship in a sea of bed-clothes.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
When I thought of the airy dreams of youth that are incapable of realization, I thought of the better state preceding manhood that I had outgrown; and then the contented days with Agnes, in the dear old house, arose before me, like spectres of the dead, that might have some renewal in another world, but never more could be reanimated here.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
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