| 释义 |
▪ I. airy, a.|ˈɛərɪ|
Forms: 4–7 ayery, 6–7 ayry(e, -ie, airie, 7 aiery, 6– airy.
[f. air n. + -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.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. iii. xviii, Þe herynge is ayery, for al wey it is gendrid by ayer. 1551Recorde Pathw. Know. Pref., Nether motion, nor time, nor ayrye impressions coulde hee aptely declare, but by the helpe of Geometrye. 1623Favine Theat. Hon. iii. xi. 348 His pace equalled the flight of the ayrie Birdes. a1656Hales Gold. Rem. (1688) 9 Meteors and airy speculations. 1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. ii. ix. 208 Insects, whether aiery, terrestrial, or watry.
2. Performed or taking place in the air as an action; aerial.
1624Quarles Sion's Eleg. (1717) 380 And to the Air breathes forth her Airy moans. 1790Wolcott (P. Pindar) Wks. 1812 II. 260 And wings o'er Trees and Towers its airy way. 1874J. Sully Sensat. & Intuit. 104 Pleasant visions of airy castles. 1878E. 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.)
c1590Marlowe Faustus i. 126 Like women or unwedded maids Shadowing more beauty in their airy brows. 1635Swan Spec. Mundi iv. §2 (1643) 68 Not onely the Aiery heaven..but under the whole Heaven. 1643Denham Cooper's Hill 217 His proud head the aery Mountain hides Among the Clouds. 1725Pope Odyss. iv. 700 Him thus exulting..A Spy distinguish'd from his airy stand. 1808Scott Marm. vi. xix, Beneath the castle's airy wall. 1879Tennyson 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.
a1596Spenser (J.) To range abroad..Through the wide compass of the airy coast. 1683Tryon Way to Health 287 Airy Houses & Rooms. 1713Pope Windsor For. 167 O'er airy wastes to rove. 1779Johnson L.P., West Wks. 1787 IV. 199 He was seduced to a more airy mode of life. 1821J. Clare Vill. Minstrel I. 195 The morning breeze, healthy and airy. 1863M. E. 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.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. iv. vii, The pure and ayery matter. 1533Elyot Cast. Helth (1541) 1 Rather erthy, watry, airy, and fyry, than absolutely erth, water, ayre, & fyre. 1563W. Fulke (title) A goodly Gallerye..to behold the naturall Causes of all Kynde of Meteors, as wel fyery and ayery, as watry and earthly. 1612Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. 1653, 20 A volatile uncertain ayrie substance. 1651Hobbes Leviathan iv. xlv. 352 They can put on Aiery bodies..to make them Visible. 1704Addison Italy 3 Thin airy Shapes that o'er the Furrows rise. 1849M. 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.
1598Florio, Fungoso, spungie, airie, light, as a mushrome. 1633Donne Poems (1650) 41 Like gold to ayery thinnesse beat. 1831Scott in Lockhart Life (1839) X. 47 The French chain-bridge looked lighter and airier than the prototype. 1849Miss Muloch Ogilv. i. 3 The airy evening dress she wore. 1865Cornh. Mag. 302 The airiest of chintz muslins.
b. Light in movement, elastic as air.
1642Howell For. Trav. 30 The one Quick and Ayry, the other Slow and Heavy. 1810Scott Lady of L. i. xviii, Elastic from her airy tread. 1878C. 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.
1644Milton Educ. (1738) 136 Others..of a more delicious and airy spirit. 1630–95Life Ant. à Wood (1848) 70 Violins..being more airie and brisk than viols. 1673Dryden Marr.-a-la-Mode v. i. Wks. III. 270 To be very Aiery, with abundance of Noise, and no Sense: Fa, la, la, la, &c. 1674Playford Skill of Mus. i. x. 33 This Mood is much used in Airy Songs and Galiards. 1714T. Ellwood Life (1765) 95 An airy Piece she was; and very merry she made herself at me. 1826Disraeli Viv. Grey v. vii. 206 Miss Fane combated all the objections with airy merriment.
d. Light, delicate, graceful in fancy or conception. (Fr. spirituel.)
1779Johnson L.P., Pope Wks. 1787 IV. 16 The Rape of the Lock, the most airy..of all his compositions. 1818Hazlitt Eng. Poets xi. (1870) 54 The fancy of Spenser; and..the airy dream that hovers over it. 1864Neale Seaton. Poems 86 And flutes make airier music float. 1879Standard 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.
1590Shakes. Mids. N. v. i. 16 The Poets pen..giues to air[i]e nothings a locall habitation And a name. 1615Sandys Trav. 145 The aiery title our Richard the first did purchase. 1644Milton Areop. (Arb.) 49 Plato..making many edicts to his ayrie Burgomasters. 1649Selden Laws Eng. ii. ii. (1739) 8 A General without an Army, the Title big, but airy. a1704T. Brown Epigr. Wks. 1730 I. 123 Airy visions of imagin'd food. 1749Smollett Regicide i. iii. (1777) 20 The vain resource of Fancy's airy dreams. 1847Lewes Hist. Philos. (1867) I. 115 And peoples an airy void with airy nothings. 1876Mozley Univ. Serm. iv. 94 Goodness was to them but an airy ideal.
b. Flimsy, superficial, flippant.
1598B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. i. i. 81 Your gentilitie..an ayrie, and meere borrow'd thing. 1627Feltham Resolves i. xxix. (1677) 51, I will never deny my self an honest solace, for fear of an airy censure. 1710Shaftesbury Charact. (1737) III. i. 8 These..may easily be oppressive to the airy Reader. 1712Hughes Spect. No. 525 ⁋3 It was determined among those airy Criticks. 1750Johnson Rambler No. 175 ⁋15 Him whose airy negligence puts his friend's affairs..in continual hazard. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. xv. 259 Said Eugene with airy contempt.
c. Speculative, imaginative, visionary.
1667Pref. to H. More's Div. Dial. (1713) 14 Not simply a Platonist, but an aiery-minded one. 1790Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 331 Subliming himself into an airy metaphysician.
8. (Derived from or influenced by air n.1 III.)
†a. Assuming airs, making lofty pretensions. Obs.
1606Warner Albion's Eng. xv. xcviii. (1612) 390 Ayrie Saints, our Hypocrits we meane.
†b. Of a good air, manner, bearing, presence. Obs.
1689Gazophyl. Angl., An ayry man, from the Fr. Aire, comliness, or a good presence. 1699Garth Dispens. iv. (1760) 60 The Slothful, negligent; the Foppish, neat; The Lewd are airy; and the Sly, discreet.
9. Comb.
1879G. M. Hopkins Poems (1918) 46 The gold-wisp, airy-grey Eye, all in fellowship.
▪ II. airy
obs. and dial. form of area. |