n. Enchantment; magic.n. An imaginary being or spirit, generally represented as of a diminutive and graceful human form, but capable of assuming any other, and as playing pranks, frolicsome, kindly, mischievous, or spiteful, on human beings or among themselves; a fay.n. Fays collectively; fairy folk.n. Fairy-land; elf-land.n. An enchantress.n. Synonyms Fairy, Elf, Fay; Sylph, Gnome; Jinn, Genie; Goblin. Fairy is the most general name for a diminutive imaginary being, generally in human form, sometimes very benevolent or inclined to teach moral lessons, as the fairy godmother of Cinderella; sometimes malevolent in the extreme, as in many fairy stories. Spenser took up the word in Chaucer's spelling, faerie or faery, and gave it an extended meaning, which is now commonly confined to that spelling and to his poem; the personages in “The Faery Queene” live in an unlocated region, essentially like the rest of the world, and are of heroic and occasionally supernatural powers; these personages he sometimes calls elves or elfins. In ordinary use an elf differs from a fairy only in generally seeming young, and being more often mischievous. Pope, in “The Rape of the Lock,” has given a definite cast to sylph and gnome; these two words are elsewhere often associated, gnomes having always been fabled as living in underground abodes, and especially as being the guardians of mines and quarries, while sylphs are denizens of the air. From this difference of place it has followed that gnomes are generally thought of with repugnance or dread, and sylphs, although of both sexes in literature, are popularly thought of as young, slender, and graceful females: hence the expression “a sylph-like form.” To Oriental imagination is due the jinn, djinn, or jinnee; the form genie is most vividly associated with the “Arabian Nights”: as, the genie of Aladdin's lamp; the genie that the fisherman let out of the bottle. A goblin is wicked, mischievous, or at least roguish, and frightful or grotesque in appearance. See the definitions of kobold, sylph, brownie, banshee, sprite, pixie, nixie, nymph, etc.Pertaining to or in some manner connected with fairies; done by or coming from fairies. See phrases below.Resembling in some way a fairy; hence, fanciful, graceful, whimsical, fantastic, etc.: as, fairy creatures or favors.
