| / English Dictionary |
FAIRY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A small being, human in form, playful and having magical powers
Synonyms:
faerie; faery; fairy; fay; sprite
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("fairy" is a kind of...):
spiritual being; supernatural being (an incorporeal being believed to have powers to affect the course of human events)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fairy"):
brownie; elf; gremlin; hob; imp; pixie; pixy ((folklore) fairies that are somewhat mischievous)
fairy godmother (a female character in some fairy stories who has magical powers and can bring unexpected good fortune to the hero or heroine)
dwarf; gnome (a legendary creature resembling a tiny old man; lives in the depths of the earth and guards buried treasure)
Morgan le Fay ((Arthurian legend) a wicked enchantress who was the half sister and enemy of King Arthur)
Puck; Robin Goodfellow (a mischievous sprite of English folklore)
Oberson ((Middle Ages) the king of the fairies and husband of Titania in medieval folklore)
Titania ((Middle Ages) the queen of the fairies in medieval folklore)
tooth fairy (a fairy that is said to leave money at night under a child's pillow to compensate for a baby tooth falling out)
water nymph; water spirit; water sprite (a fairy that inhabits water)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Offensive term for a homosexual man
Synonyms:
fag; faggot; fagot; fairy; nance; pansy; poof; poove; pouf; queen; queer
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("fairy" is a kind of...):
gay; homo; homophile; homosexual (someone who is sexually attracted to persons of the same sex)
Domain usage:
depreciation; derogation; disparagement (a communication that belittles somebody or something)
Context examples:
I don't care for the fairy: you said it was mademoiselle you would take to the moon?
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal.
(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)
He had never questioned it, except when he read books; but then, they were only books, fairy stories of a fairer and impossible world.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
She is the prettiest and most engaging little fairy in the world.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
It is such a pretty charade, my dear, that I can easily guess what fairy brought it.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
At last he came to the chamber where the fairy sat, with the seven hundred birds singing in the seven hundred cages.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
The fairy queen's yellow curls reminded her of Amy, and between the acts she amused herself with wondering what her sister would do to make her 'sorry for it'.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
'Oh,' returned the fairy, 'that does not signify! Here is a talisman will remove all difficulties;' and she held out a pretty gold ring.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out.
(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)
And through the swaying, palpitant vision, as through a fairy mirage, he stared at the real woman, sitting there and talking of literature and art. He listened as well, but he stared, unconscious of the fixity of his gaze or of the fact that all that was essentially masculine in his nature was shining in his eyes.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
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