Search the Dictionary

An image formed by the mind, and supposed to be real or material; a shadowy or airy appearance; sometimes, an optical illusion; a phantom; a dream. They be but phantasms or apparitions. Sir W. Raleigh.

which has only an apparent existence; an apparition; a specter; a phantasm; a sprite; an airy spirit; an ideal image. Strange phantoms rising as the mists arise. Pope. She was a phantom of delight. Wordsworth. Phantom ship. See Flying Dutchman, under Flying. -- Phantom tumor (Med.), a swelling, especially of the abdo…

A cant word for anything petty or small. It is used by Drayton as the name of a fairy.

Consisting of, or covered with, hair; hairy; pilose.

Hairy; full of, or made of, hair. The heat-retaining property of the pilose covering. Owen.

An old English name for a fairy; an elf. [Written also picksy.]

, and indicates its approach; a forerunner; a harbinger. Evil thoughts are the invisible, airy precursors of all the storms and tempests of the soul. Buckminster.

A celebrated fairy, "the merry wanderer of the night;" -- called also Robin Goodfellow, Friar Rush, Pug, etc. Shak. He meeteth Puck, whom most men call Hobgoblin, and on him doth fall. Drayton.

A small ring; a small circle; specifically, a fairy ring. You demi-puppets, that By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make, Whereof the ewe not bites. Shak.

A celebrated fairy; Puck. See Puck. Shak.

A rondelay. "Sung all the roundel lustily." Chaucer. Come, now a roundel and a fairy song. Shak.

pecies of South American monkeys of the genus Pithecia. They have large ears, and a long hairy tail which is not prehensile.

Hairy; shaggy. Shak.

any small crustacean, including some amphipods and even certain entomostracans; as, the fairy shrimp, and brine shrimp. See under Fairy, and Brine.

& Scot.] Sir W. Scott. Your kindred is but . . . little sib to you. Chaucer. [He] is no fairy birn, ne sib at all To elfs, but sprung of seed terrestrial. Spenser.

Like a spark; airy; gay. W. Walsh.

ral being, good or bad; an apparition; a specter; a ghost; also, sometimes, a sprite,; a fairy; an elf. Whilst young, preserve his tender mind from all impressions of spirits and goblins in the dark. Locke.

Lively; gay; vivid; airy. [Obs.] Sir H. Wotton. The mind of man is of that spirituous, stirring nature, that it is perpetually at work. South.

Sprightlike, or spiritlike; lively; brisk; animated; vigorous; airy; gay; as, a sprightly youth; a sprightly air; a sprightly dance. "Sprightly wit and love inspires." Dryden. The sprightly Sylvia trips along the green. Pope.

An elf; a fairy; a goblin.