lair1
/lɛː
/noun
1A place where a wild animal lives: the badgers carried the food back to their lair...
- What a desolation it has become, a lair for wild animals!
- As it is an offence to kill or ‘knowingly disturb’ an otter, the developers will now have to construct a replacement holt - an underground lair - for the animals.
- He would build his own dens from what was available or send his female accomplice out to look for empty animal lairs, sometimes she found them, others times she didn't.
Synonyms
den, burrow, hole, lie, covert, tunnel, dugout, hollow, cave, haunt
1.1A secret or private place in which a person seeks concealment or seclusion: he led the police to the criminals' lair...
- She retreats upward, seeking the seclusion of her rooftop lair.
- A short gallery of sketches shows off Jun's sense of fashion; another sketch gallery includes production art for villains, secret lairs, and gadgets galore.
- Two of Gordon's enemies plot his downfall from their secret lair.
Synonyms
hideaway, hiding place, hideout, refuge, sanctuary, haven, cache, shelter, retreat
informal hidey-hole
Origin
Old English leger 'resting place, bed', of Germanic origin; related to Dutch leger 'bed, camp' and German Lager 'storehouse', also to lie1. Compare with laager, lager, and leaguer2.
lager from mid 19th century:
The fuller name for lager, no longer much used, is lager beer. It comes from German Lagerbier ‘beer brewed for keeping’, from Lager ‘storehouse’, which shares its root with an animal's lair (Old English), and also with lie (Old English). Since the 1980s we have had the lager lout, the young man who drinks too much and then behaves in an unpleasant or violent way. See also beer
Rhymes
lair2
/lɛː/Australian /NZ informal
noun
A flashily dressed man who enjoys showing off.
verb [no object]
Dress or behave in a flashy manner: some of us laired up in Assam silk suits
Origin
1930s: back-formation from lairy.