lairy
/ˈlɛəɹi/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/ˈlɛːɹɪj/
lairy adjective: touchy, aggressive or confrontational, usually while drunk.
Adjective (1)
lairy (comparative lairier, superlative lairiest)
- Touchy, aggressive or confrontational, usually while drunk.
- Don't get lairy with me!
- There's always been a weird duality at the heart of New Order: the fact that three druggy, lairy Mancs and the drummer's girlfriend can craft music of such awesome emotive power as to make grown neds weep.2001 October 14, Simon Stuart, “rush to order”, in Glasgow Sunday Herald
Adjective (2)
lairy (comparative lairier, superlative lairiest)
- Vulgar and flashy.
- He was lairy alright, resplendent in a purple blazer and pink trousers.1983, National Book Council (Australia), Australian Book Review, Issues 48-57, page 29
- They had no wedding party, only an Australian couple in their sixties, the woman in a great deal of pancake and blusher and a lairy fur jacket.2008, Helen Garner, True Stories, page 255
- Socially unacceptable.
Examples of lairy in a sentence
- Unskinny was a self-published riot of large lasses getting lairy in northern towns, and did a reasonable trade via friends and comic shops.2002 July 27, “‘We wouldn′t dream of making you feel fat’”, in Glasgow Herald:
- The show is lairy, loud and laddish; it does exactly what it says on the tin.2002 September 24, Gareth McLean, “Live With Chris Moyles”, in The Guardian:
- Watching the people get lairy / It's not very pretty I tell thee2004 November 1, “I Predict a Riot”, in Employment, performed by Kaiser Chiefs:
- I started to get a bit lairy, agitated on drink.2005, Alexander Masters, Stuart: A Life Backwards:
Forms of lairy
| comparative | lairier |
|---|---|
| superlative | lairiest |
Origin of lairy
Variation of leery, originally Cockney slang.
Thought to be from leery (“knowing, streetwise”).
Words formed from lairy
Words that rhyme with lairy
Questions about lairy
- What does lairy mean?
- Lairy means touchy, aggressive or confrontational, usually while drunk.
- How do you use lairy in a sentence?
- Unskinny was a self-published riot of large lasses getting lairy in northern towns, and did a reasonable trade via friends and comic shops.
- What part of speech is lairy?
- Lairy is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce lairy?
- Lairy is pronounced /ˈlɛəɹi/ (UK).
Words near lairy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lairy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-lairy.wav.
Cite this entry: “lairy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lairy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.