lairy

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɛəɹi/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛəɹi

Etymology 1

Variation of leery, originally Cockney slang.

Adjective

lairy (comparative lairier, superlative lairiest)

1. (UK) Touchy, aggressive or confrontational, usually while drunk.

   Don't get lairy with me!

   • 2001 October 14, Simon Stuart, “rush to order”, in Glasgow Sunday Herald:

     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.

   • 2002 July 27, “‘We wouldn′t dream of making you feel fat’”, in Glasgow Herald‎^[1]:

     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 September 24, Gareth McLean, “Live With Chris Moyles”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     The show is lairy, loud and laddish; it does exactly what it says on the tin.

   • 2004, “I Predict a Riot”, in Employment, performed by Kaiser Chiefs:

     Watching the people get lairy / It's not very pretty I tell thee

   • 2005, Alexander Masters, Stuart: A Life Backwards:

     I started to get a bit lairy, agitated on drink.

   • 2005 November 20, Rowan Pelling, “Women do make the worst drunks. Maybe it's the sick'n'sequin mix...”, in The Independent on Sunday:

     Obviously, I'm not beginning to suggest women commit as much violent crime as men when plastered. But I do now concede that being aggressive, ignorant, lairy and foul-mouthed suits the ladies even less than it suits the fellas.

Etymology 2

Thought to be from leery (“knowing, streetwise”).

Adjective

lairy (comparative lairier, superlative lairiest)

1. (Australia) Vulgar and flashy.
   • 1983, National Book Council (Australia), Australian Book Review, Issues 48-57, page 29,

     He was lairy alright, resplendent in a purple blazer and pink trousers.

   • 2008, Helen Garner, True Stories, page 255:

     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.

   • 2009, Sally Neighbour, The Mother of Mohammed: An Australian Woman′s Extraordinary Journey Into Jihad, page 176:

     Sungkar told Rabiah he thought of her as he rode to freedom on his motor scooter through the green wrought-iron gates, disguised in a pair of blue jeans and a lairy short-sleeved batik shirt: ‘Rabiah reckoned the safari suit was bad—if only she could see me now’.

2. (Australia) Socially unacceptable.

Derived terms

• lair
• lairiser

Anagrams

• airly, riyal