lair

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /lɛə/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /lɛɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)
• Homophone: layer (one pronunciation)

Etymology 1

From Middle English leir, leire, lair, lare, from Old English leġer (“couch, bed”), from Proto-Germanic *legrą, from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ-.

Noun

lair (plural lairs)

1. A place inhabited by a wild animal, often a cave or a hole in the ground.
   • a. 1881, Sidney Lanier, Strange Jokes:

     O dainty dew, O morning dew / That gleamed in the world's first dawn, did you / And the sweet grass and manful oaks / Give lair and rest / To him who toadwise sits and croaks / His death-behest?

2. A shed or shelter for domestic animals.
3. (figuratively) A place inhabited by a criminal or criminals, a superhero or a supervillain; a refuge, retreat, haven or hideaway.
   • 1897, Bram Stoker, chapter 21, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC:

     ...Van Helsing stood up and said, "Now, my dear friends, we go forth to our terrible enterprise. Are we all armed, as we were on that night when first we visited our enemy's lair. Armed against ghostly as well as carnal attack?"

   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 41:

     [H]e did a little scout work, and discovered the lair of that old woman.

4. (British dialectal) A bed or resting place.
   • 1820, John Clare, “Address to Plenty in Winter”, in Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery‎, page 50:

     Then would I in Plenty's lap,
     For the first time take a nap;
     Falling back in easy lair,
     Sweetly slumb'ring in my chair;

   • 1843 June, William Thom, “Extract from a Letter to J. Robertson, Esq.”, in Rhymes and Recollections of a Hand-loom Weaver, 3rd edition, London: Smith, Elder and Co., published 1847, page 136:

     Wake ye, sleep ye, my hapless boy,
     In this homeless house of care?
     Lack ye the warmth of a mother's eye
     On the cauldrife, lonely lair?

5. (Scotland) A grave; a cemetery plot.
   • 2018 August 2, BBC News, quoting Aberdeen City Council, “Dad 'will sleep by son's grave' to stop council clearing mementoes”, in BBC News‎:

     We appreciate that this is a sensitive issue for lair owners and would like to assure them that the maintenance of the cemetery is carried out in a sensitive and dignified manner.

6. (seduction community) A group where pickup artists meet to discuss and practise seduction techniques.

Synonyms

• (of an animal): burrow (of some smaller mammals), den (of a lion or tiger), holt (of an otter)
• (of a criminal): den, hide-out

Derived terms

• (grave): lair-stone (“tombstone”)

Translations

Verb

lair (third-person singular simple present lairs, present participle lairing, simple past and past participle laired)

1. (British) To rest; to dwell.
   • 1822, Hew Ainslie, “The Waesome Death O' Christy Ford”, in A Pilgrimage to the Land of Burns, Deptford: W. Brown, page 42:

     The lee-light that December gies
     Was lairing in the wast,
     Whan Christy wi' her oa claes,
     Was boun' to dree the blast.

2. (British) To lay down.
3. (British) To bury.

Etymology 2

From Old Norse leir (“clay, mud”). Compare Icelandic leir (“clay”).

Noun

lair (plural lairs)

1. (Scotland) A bog; a mire.

Verb

lair (third-person singular simple present lairs, present participle lairing, simple past and past participle laired)

1. (transitive, Scotland) To mire.
2. (intransitive, Scotland) To become mired.

Etymology 3

Backformation from lairy.

Noun

lair (plural lairs)

1. (Australia, New Zealand, colloquial) A person who dresses in a showy but tasteless manner and behaves in a vulgar and conceited way; a show-off.

Etymology 4

Noun

lair (plural lairs)

1. Obsolete form of layer.
   • 1912, Central Provinces (India), Central Provinces District Gazetteers, page 96:

     The walls, which are fixed direct into the ground without a plinth, are made of wattle and plastered with a thin lair of mud or cowdung.

References

• Wright, Joseph (1902) The English Dialect Dictionary‎, volume 3, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pages 505–506
• “lair” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.

Anagrams

• aril, lari, liar, lira, rail, rial

Manx

Noun

lair f

1. Alternative form of laair

Scots

Etymology

From Old English lār (“instruction”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlair/
• Rhymes: -er

Noun

lair (plural lairs)

1. lore
   • "Ower mony a fair-farrant an rare beuk o precious lair" (second line of "The Raven" translated into Scots).