Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Fairy

Fair′y (fâr′y̆), n.; pl. Fairies (#). [OE. fairie, faierie, enchantment, fairy folk, fairy, OF. faerie enchantment, F. féer, fr. LL. Fata one of the goddesses of fate. See Fate, and cf. Fay a fairy.] [Written also faëry.] 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.

Fair′y, a. 1. Of or pertaining to fairies.

2. Given by fairies; as, fairy money. Dryden.

Fairy bird (Zoöl.), the Euoropean little tern (Sterna minuta); — called also sea swallow, and hooded tern. — Fairy bluebird. (Zoöl.) See under Bluebird. — Fairy martin (Zoöl.), 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 (Zoöl.), 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.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.