lair

See also: Lair, láir, and làir

English

Pronunciation

(UK) IPA^(key): /lɛə/
Audio (UK) (file)
(US) IPA^(key): /lɛəɹ/
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)

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?
A shed or shelter for domestic animals.
(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 688657546:
  ...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, Sydney: Ure Smith, published 1962, OCLC 751607287, page 41:
  [H]e did a little scout work, and discovered the lair of that old woman.
(Britain dialectal) A bed or resting place.
- 1820, Clare, John, “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 1, Thom, William, “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?
(Scotland) A grave; a cemetery plot. [from c. 1420]
- 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.

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

of an animal

Armenian: որջ (hy) (orǰ)
Bashkir: оя (oya)
Bulgarian: бърлога (bg) f (bǎrloga), леговище (bg) n (legovište)
Catalan: cau (ca) m
Chinese:
Mandarin: 巢穴 (zh) (cháoxué), 獸穴／兽穴 (zh) (shòuxué), 獸窟／兽窟 (shòukū), 獸窩／兽窝 (shòuwō)
Czech: doupě n
Dutch: hol (nl), leger (nl) n
Finnish: pesä (fi)
French: antre (fr) m, tanière (fr) f, repaire (fr) m
Georgian: ბუნაგი (bunagi), სორო (soro)
German: Bau (de) m, Höhle (de) f
Greek:
Ancient: φωλεός m (phōleós)
Hebrew: מְאוּרָה‎ f (meurá)
Hungarian: odú (hu)
Irish: brocais f, leaba dhearg f
Italian: tana (it) f
Japanese: 巣窟 (ja) (そうくつ, sōkutsu)
Latin: lustrum n
Latvian: miga (lv) f
Norwegian:
Bokmål: hi (no) n
Nynorsk: hi n
Ojibwe: waazh, waanzh
Portuguese: toca (pt) f
Romanian: vizuină (ro) f
Russian: ло́гово (ru) n (lógovo), берло́га (ru) f (berlóga), нора́ (ru) f (norá)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: ја̏збина f
Roman: jȁzbina (sh) f
Slovak: brloh (sk) m
Slovene: brlog (sl) m
Spanish: guarida (es) f, madriguera (es) f
Swedish: bohåla c, håla (sv) c, gryt (sv) n, kula (sv) c, lya (sv) c

of a criminal

Bulgarian: скривалище (bg) n (skrivalište)
Catalan: cau (ca) m
Dutch: schuilplaats (nl)
Finnish: piilo (fi), piilopaikka (fi)
French: antre (fr) m
Greek: κρησφύγετο (el) n (krisfýgeto), λημέρι (el) n (liméri)
Hungarian: búvóhely (hu)
Irish: cró folaigh m
Italian: covo (it) m
Latin: lustrum n
Portuguese: esconderijo (pt) m, covil (pt) m
Russian: ло́гово (ru) n (lógovo), прито́н (ru) m (pritón)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: ја̏збина f, бр́лог m, ја̏ма f
Roman: jȁzbina (sh) f, bŕlog (sh) m, jȁma (sh) f
Slovene: brlog (sl) m
Spanish: guarida (es) f, escondite m

Verb

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

(Britain) To rest; to dwell.
- 1822, Ainslie, Hew, “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.
(Britain) To lay down.
(Britain) To bury.

Etymology 2

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

Noun

lair (plural lairs)

(Scotland) A bog; a mire.

Verb

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

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

Etymology 3

Backformation from lairy.

Noun

lair (plural lairs)

(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.

Noun

lair (plural lairs)

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

Alternative form of laair

Scots

Etymology

From Old English lār (“instruction”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈlair/
Rhymes: -er

Noun

lair (plural lairs)

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