The Collaborative International Dictionary
Fairy \Fair"y\, a.
Of or pertaining to fairies.
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Given by fairies; as, fairy money.
--Dryden.Fairy bird (Zo["o]l.), the Euoropean little tern ( Sterna minuta); -- called also sea swallow, and hooded tern.
Fairy bluebird. (Zo["o]l.) See under Bluebird.
Fairy martin (Zo["o]l.), a European swallow ( Hirrundo ariel) that builds flask-shaped nests of mud on overhanging cliffs.
Fairy rings or Fairy circles, the circles formed in grassy lawns by certain fungi (as Marasmius Oreades), formerly supposed to be caused by fairies in their midnight dances; also, the mushrooms themselves. Such circles may have diameters larger than three meters.
Fairy shrimp (Zo["o]l.), a European fresh-water phyllopod crustacean ( Chirocephalus diaphanus); -- so called from its delicate colors, transparency, and graceful motions. The name is sometimes applied to similar American species.
Fairy stone (Paleon.), an echinite.
Usage examples of "fairy circles".
There are several fairy circles in the Forest of the Yew, but the one under the yew-tree in the middle has this legend connected with it : Many years ago, two farm-servants, whose names were Twm and lago, went out one day to work in the Forest of the Yew.
Gray streaks and sooty fairy circles indicated that water had been pumped into it, had since evaporated.
These were the fairy circles that I had seen on my first tour in Garrett’.