fairy — ODE · Shobdo

fairy /ˈfɛːri

▸ noun

(plural fairies)

1 a small imaginary being of human form that has magical powers, especially a female one:

she believed she had had fairies at the bottom of her garden

[as modifier] she dressed up as a colourful fairy princess with her sister

the mischievous ways of the fairy folk.

2 offensive, derogatory a gay man.

▪ a man who is seen as unmasculine, timid, or affected.

3 a Central and South American hummingbird with a green back and long tail.

Genus Heliothryx, family Trochilidae: two species.

– PHRASES

away with the fairies British English informal
distracted, in a dreamworld, or out of touch with reality:

you seem away with the fairies, are you listening?

at school I was dismissed as being a daydreamer or away with the fairies.

– ORIGIN Middle English (denoting fairyland, or fairies collectively): from Old French faerie, from fae, ‘a fairy’, from Latin fata ‘the Fates’, plural of fatum (see fate). Compare with fay.