airy-fairy
[ air-ee-fair-ee ]
/ ˈɛər iˈfɛər i /
adjective
Informal.
- delicate or lovely: an airy-fairy actress; an airy-fairy nightgown.
- not based on reality or concerned with mundane affairs; unrealistic: airy-fairy ideas about spending a fortune that isn't even his.
Slang.
effeminate; swishy.
Origin of airy-fairy
perhaps orig. in the phrase “airy, fairy Lilian” in Tennyson's poem “Lilian” (1830)
Words nearby airy-fairy
Example sentences from the Web for airy-fairy
Nothing of the tootsey-wootsey about her foot, and nothing of the airy-fairy trifle about her slipper.
Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son |George Horace LorimerThere is nothing more beautiful than the airy-fairy soap-bubble with its everchanging colors.
How Two Boys Made Their Own Electrical Apparatus |Thomas M. (Thomas Matthew) St. John
British Dictionary definitions for airy-fairy
airy-fairy
/ (ˈɛərɪˈfɛərɪ) /
adjective
informal
fanciful and unrealistic
an airy-fairy scheme
delicate to the point of being insubstantial; light
Word Origin for airy-fairy
C19: from Tennyson's poem
Lillian (1830), where the central figure is described as "Airy, fairy Lillian"