Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Insubstantial or impractical.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Even the title had a Rayner story lurking behind it: "Now with wings" was the slogan used to promote a new sanitary towel with flaps in the 80s, one of only two TV commercials she ever agreed to do – because, as Sandi Toksvig explained, Claire was fed up with "airy-fairy adverts with women leaping around in trousers or diving into swimming pools".

    Claire Rayner memorial fundraiser draws star-studded cast 2011

  • Whenever he was feeling surly, which was often, Bo liked to ask his wife what the hell she thought she was doing, wasting her time with all this airy-fairy, futuristic crap.

    The Rotation of the Earth David Oppegaard 2011

  • Even the title had a Rayner story lurking behind it: "Now with wings" was the slogan used to promote a new sanitary towel with flaps in the 80s, one of only two TV commercials she ever agreed to do – because, as Sandi Toksvig explained, Claire was fed up with "airy-fairy adverts with women leaping around in trousers or diving into swimming pools".

    Claire Rayner memorial fundraiser draws star-studded cast 2011

  • He dropped the airy-fairy visionary verbiage and talked turkey.

    Paul Begala: Obama's SOTU: Putting the Jam on the Lower Shelf So the Little People Can Reach It Paul Begala 2011

  • This is not to say that I believe in airy-fairy notions of spirit, but I'm willing to pretend, as an expedient fiction, that my id and your id and all the ids coded into artworks throughout our culture form an ... aesthetic-behavioural system of sorts.

    Archive 2009-05-01 Hal Duncan 2009

  • I recommend you find a qualified legal advisor for definitive answers to your questions, if such people do, in fact, exist outside my fantasies. just recall Alaska being pretty airy-fairy when it came to the letter of the law, or anything else.

    Page 2 2009

  • I recommend you find a qualified legal advisor for definitive answers to your questions, if such people do, in fact, exist outside my fantasies. just recall Alaska being pretty airy-fairy when it came to the letter of the law, or anything else.

    Page 2 2009

  • We found a couple that were not too touristy and not of the airy-fairy, fluffy-bunny variety, which was refreshing.

    "...our ghosts to wander all the water." greygirlbeast 2009

  • I recommend you find a qualified legal advisor for definitive answers to your questions, if such people do, in fact, exist outside my fantasies. just recall Alaska being pretty airy-fairy when it came to the letter of the law, or anything else.

    Page 2 2009

  • He dropped the airy-fairy visionary verbiage and talked turkey.

    Paul Begala: Obama's SOTU: Putting the Jam on the Lower Shelf So the Little People Can Reach It Paul Begala 2011

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  • Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

    adjective

    Date: 1850

    1.chiefly British : delicate fairylike

    2.chiefly British : lacking substance or purpose

    not practical or not useful in real situations

    February 3, 2008