Airy

a. Forms: 4–7 ayery, 6–7 ayry(e, -ie, airie, 7 aiery, 6– airy. [f. AIR sb. + -Y¹. See also AERY, a parallel form after L. āeri-us.]

  I.  Of the atmosphere.

  † 1.  Of or belonging to the air. a. Naturally produced or performed through the air, pneumatic, atmospheric. b. Living in the air; aerial. Obs.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., III. xviii. Þe herynge is ayery, for al wey it is gendrid by ayer.

1551.  Recorde, Pathw. Knowl., Pref. Nether motion, nor time, nor ayrye impressions coulde hee aptely declare, but by the helpe of Geometrye.

1623.  Favine, Theat. Hon., III. xi. 348. His pace equalled the flight of the ayrie Birdes.

a. 1656.  Hales, Gold. Rem. (1688), 9. Meteors and airy speculations.

1677.  Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., II. ix. 208. Insects, whether aiery, terrestrial, or watry.

  2.  Performed or taking place in the air as an action; aerial.

1624.  Quarles, Sion’s Eleg. (1717), 380. And to the Air breathes forth her Airy moans.

1790.  Wolcott (P. Pindar), Wks., 1812, II. 260. And wings o’er Trees and Towers its airy way.

1874.  J. Sully, Sensat. & Intuit., 104. Pleasant visions of airy castles.

1878.  E. White, Life in Christ, I. ii. 18. If that has been the object of the airy voyage.

  3.  Placed high in the air: aerial; lofty. Hence, ethereal, heavenly. (Now only poetical.)

c. 1590.  Marlowe, Faustus, i. 126. Like women or unwedded maids Shadowing more beauty in their airy brows.

1635.  Swan, Spec. Mundi, iv. § 2 (1643), 68. Not onely the Aiery heaven … but under the whole Heaven.

1643.  Denham, Cooper’s Hill, 217. His proud head the aery Mountain hides Among the Clouds.

1725.  Pope, Odyss., IV. 700. Him thus exulting … A Spy distinguish’d from his airy stand.

1808.  Scott, Marm., VI. xix. Beneath the castle’s airy wall.

1879.  Tennyson, Lover’s T., 11. From his mid-dome in Heaven’s airy halls.

  4.  Exposed to the open air, abounding in or open to free currents of air; hence, breezy.

1590.  Spenser, Muiopotmos, 37 (J.).

1683.  Tryon, Way to Health, 287. Airy Houses & Rooms.

1713.  Pope, Windsor For., 167. O’er airy wastes to rove.

1779.  Johnson, L. P., West, Wks. 1787, IV. 199. He was seduced to a more airy mode of life.

1821.  J. Clare, Vill. Minstrel, I. 195. The morning breeze, healthy and airy.

1863.  Miss Braddon, Eleanor’s Vict., I. ii. 22. She had been accustomed to large airy rooms.

  II.  Of the substance air.

  5.  Composed of air, of the nature of air; hence, in modern use, Having the consistency or appearance of air merely, air-like, immaterial.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., IV. vii. The pure and ayery matter.

1533.  Elyot, Cast. Helth (1541), 1. Rather erthy, watry, airy, and fyry, than absolutely erth, water, ayre, & fyre.

1563.  W. Fulke (title), A goodly Gallerye … to behold the naturall Causes of all Kynde of Meteors, as wel fyery and ayery, as watry and earthly.

1612.  Woodall, Surg. Mate, Wks. 1653, 20. A volatile uncertain ayrie substance.

1651.  Hobbes, Leviathan, IV. xlv. 352. They can put on Aiery bodies … to make them Visible.

1704.  Addison, Italy, 3. Thin airy Shapes that o’er the Furrows rise.

1849.  Mrs. Somerville, Connex. Phys. Sc., xxxvii. 445. These thin and airy phantoms vanish in the distance.

  6.  Like air in its lightness and buoyancy. (Used appreciatively.) a. Light in appearance; thin in texture, as if capable of floating in the air.

1598.  Florio, Fungoso, spungie, airie, light, as a mushrome.

1633.  Donne, Poems (1650), 41. Like gold to ayery thinnesse beat.

1831.  Scott, in Lockhart’s Life (1839), X. 47. The French chain-bridge looked lighter and airier than the prototype.

1849.  Miss Muloch, Ogilv., i. 3. The airy evening dress she wore.

1865.  Cornh. Mag., 302. The airiest of chintz muslins.

  b.  Light in movement, elastic as air.

1642.  Howell, For. Trav., 30. The one Quick and Ayry, the other Slow and Heavy.

1810.  Scott, Lady of L., I. xviii. Elastic from her airy tread.

1878.  C. Stanford, Symb. Christ, ix. 237. To still the airy foot and to quench the brightness of that radiant eye.

  c.  Lively, sprightly, merry, gay, vivacious.

1644.  Milton, Educ. (1738), 136. Others … of a more delicious and airy spirit.

1630–95.  Life Ant. à Wood (1848), 70. Violins … being more airie and brisk than viols.

1673.  Dryden, Marr. à la Mode, V. i. Wks. III. 270. To be very Aiery, with abundance of Noise, and no Sense: Fa, la, la, la, &c.

1674.  Playford, Skill of Mus., I. x. 33. This Mood is much used in Airy Songs and Galiards.

1714.  Ellwood, Life (1765), 95. An airy Piece she was; and very merry she made herself at me.

1826.  Disraeli, Viv. Grey, V. vii. 206. Miss Fane combated all the objections with airy merriment.

  d.  Light, delicate, graceful in fancy or conception. (Fr. spirituel.)

1779.  Johnson, L. P., Pope, Wks. 1787, IV. 16. The Rape of the Lock, the most airy … of all his compositions.

1818.  Hazlitt, Eng. Poets, xi. (1870), 54. The fancy of Spenser; and … the airy dream that hovers over it.

1864.  Neale, Seaton. Poems, 86. And flutes make airier music float.

1879.  Standard, 27 May. The airiest of wits, he was one of the gayest squib writers that ever lived.

  7.  Like air in its (apparently) intangible or empty character. (Used depreciatively.)

  a.  Unsubstantial, vain, empty; unreal, imaginary.

1590.  Shaks., Mids. N., V. i. 16. The Poets pen … giues to air[i]e nothings a locall habitation And a name.

1615.  Sandys, Trav., 145. The aiery title our Richard the first did purchase.

1644.  Milton, Areop. (Arb.), 49. Plato … making many edicts to his ayrie Burgomasters.

1649.  Selden, Laws Eng., II. ii. (1739), 8. A General without an Army, the Title big, but airy.

a. 1704.  T. Brown, Epigr., Wks. 1730, I. 123. Airy visions of imagin’d food.

1749.  Smollett, Regic., I. iii. (1777), 20. The vain resource of Fancy’s airy dreams.

1847.  Lewes, Hist. Philos. (1867), I. 115. And peoples an airy void with airy nothings.

1876.  Mozley, Univ. Serm., iv. 94. Goodness was to them but an airy ideal.

  b.  Flimsy, superficial, flippant.

1598.  B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum., I. i. 8. Your gentilitie … an ayrie, and meere borrow’d thing.

1627.  Feltham, Resolves, I. xxix. (1677), 51. I will never deny my self an honest solace, for fear of an airy censure.

1710.  Shaftesbury, Charact. (1737), III. i. 8. These … may easily be oppressive to the airy Reader.

1712.  Hughes, Spect., No. 525, ¶ 3. It was determined among those airy Criticks.

1750.  Johnson, Rambler, No. 175, ¶ 15. Him whose airy negligence puts his friend’s affairs … in continual hazard.

1865.  Dickens, Mut. Fr., XV. 259. Said Eugene with airy contempt.

  c.  Speculative, imaginative, visionary.

1667.  Pref. to H. More’s Div. Dial. (1713), 14. Not simply a Platonist, but an aiery-minded one.

1790.  Burke, Fr. Rev., Wks. V. 331. Subliming himself into an airy metaphysician.

  8.  (Derived from or influenced by AIR III.)

  † a.  Assuming airs, making lofty pretensions. Obs.

1606.  Warner, Albion’s Eng., XV. xcviii. (1612), 390. Ayrie Saints, our Hypocrits we meane.

  † b.  Of a good air, manner, bearing, presence. Obs.

1689.  Gazophyl. Angl., An ayry man, from the Fr. Aire, comliness, or a good presence.

1699.  Garth, Dispens., iv. (1760), 60. The Slothful, negligent; the Foppish, neat; The Lewd are airy; and the Sly, discreet.