Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The den or dwelling of a wild animal.
- n. A den or hideaway.
- n. Obsolete A resting place; a couch.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A place in which to lie or rest; a bed; a couch: now used only of, or with figurative reference to, the den or resting-place of a wild beast.
- n. A litter, as of rabbits; a stock.
- n. An open pasture; a field.
- n. Aportion of a burying-ground affording space sufficient for one or more graves; a burial-plot.
- n. A Scotch form of lore.
- n. Clay; earth.
- n. Mire; a bog; a quagmire.
- n. Soil; land; ground: in this sense probably confused with lair, 3.
- To sink when wading in snow, mud, or quagmire.
- To put or have put in a lair or den.
- To shelter; hold as in a lair.
- To lie (on); rest inactively.
- To enter a lair; lie down (in); lurk.
Wiktionary
- n. A place inhabited by a wild animal, often a cave or a hole in the ground.
- n. figuratively A place inhabited by a criminal or criminals, a superhero or a supervillain.
- v. transitive, Scotland To mire.
- v. intransitive, Scotland To become mired.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A place in which to lie or rest; especially, the bed or couch of a wild beast.
- n. Scot. A burying place.
- n. obsolete A pasture; sometimes, food.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the habitation of wild animals
Etymologies
- From Old English leġer ("couch, bed"), from Proto-Germanic *legran, from Proto-Indo-European *leǵh-. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old English leger; see legh- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Remember Maxine D-CA that the CIA and Regan are infecting black people with aids. calling a man a lair is a lot different than accuseing one of Murder.”
Wilson says no more apologies for outburst against president
“Not sure how your failure to find more information than wikipedia or the supposed anecdotal evidence of a proven lair is interesting exactly.”
“Eugene Debs sponsered by the Church of the presumptious assumption says: by the way shitweasel it isnt that lair is our favorite word just a very useful word when describing the rightwing MORONS like you that lie constantly”
“Hmm … I bet his secret lair is something out of Star Wars … the part with the Rancor.”
“Last year he dispatched troops into Swat and South Waziristan to oust the Taliban from their mountain lair; more recently, he helped the US increase drone strikes.”
The Guardian: Mumbai spy says he worked for terrorists ? then briefed Pakistan
“Tasteful, elegant furnishings, bedding, furniture and everything home; this spacious lair is one stop shopping.”
The Huffington Post: Faith Hope Consolo: The Faithful Shopper: Fun Furnishings
“He has no money for beer, and his lair is only for sleeping purposes, so what else remains for him to do?”
“The developers started down the right path: Bush's evil lair is hidden underneath an abandoned port-a-potty out in the middle of the desert.”
“I would just like to announce that the underwater lair is closed because of mold infestation, so we'll have to have our monthly infant sacrifice ritual at the volcano hideout for the rest of the year.”
“Although the lair is behind closed doors, the conversation is hushed, for brother could be lurking.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘lair’.
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common UA vocab. in US
Interesting, there is a traditional vocabulary of an Ukrainian, that differs from vocabulary of average American. It would be nice to explore it.
jackdaw, incongruous, cassock, vivid, magpie, humdrum, amongst, wonder, wandering, wheedling, wheedle, osseous and 368 more...
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Surprising four-letter words
I imagine most of these will be Anglo-Saxon, not likely to crop up in the average day's conversation, and thus excellent for Scrabble. ("most" is too common, likewise "will" and even "crop", in an...
blet, quim, clit, buff, sire, wiki, blog, loam, waft, heft, mare, lilt and 68 more...
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What's That Pokémon Name?
Words used to create the names of Pokémon, which are usually portmanteaux.
bulb, dinosaur, ivy, venus, char, salamander, squirt, turtle, blast, tortoise, water, caterpillar and 525 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (L)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
labyrinth, lace, lad, lady fingers, lagoon, lamb, lament, lammas, lantern, larkspur, lass, lauds and 92 more...
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Aequoria's list
affect, deleterious, nuance, pliant, verbatim, pertinent, latter, municipality, provincial, voyeuristic, circumlocution, wane and 798 more...
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Scriptie: The Two Towers
dampen, treacherous, black gate, man-flesh, precious, elvish, dwarf, pursuit, quarry, hobbit, sprinters, horse lords and 236 more...
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Joshee Word List
gash, engross, entail, stoke, ode, vacillate, aspersion, asperity, clan, kith, prospect, nag and 229 more...
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Cloudstreet
From Cloudstreet by Tim Winton. Expect lots of new-to-me words and/or just pleasing words encountered in this book, perhaps mostly Australian slang.
chiack, staggerjuice, thunderbox, patterson's curse, cactus, dreckly, compo, hayburner, mulie, carn, dag, grizzle and 34 more...
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Danagrams
void, relearn, rain, reordain, evil, real, divine, evildoer, varied, role, loner, dire and 85 more...
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Anglo-Saxon Age Vocabulary
exile, thane, lair, affliction, purge, gorge, talons, infamous, loathsome, livid, sage
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spacesmith's Words
ergonomic, philanderer, lair, pandemonium, autonomy, palendrome, prolific, theosophist
Tweets
Looking for tweets for lair.
knitandpurl Australian slang: a flashily-dressed young man
"At the Tivoli, said Lester, and then The Blue Room. Ooh, I was a lair then. All the best people'd sing me songs. I wrote for the best of em."
Cloudstreet by Tim Winton, p 72 of the Graywolf Press hardcover edition Mar 30, 2010