fairy dust
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Based on the story of the fictional character Peter Pan, see quotations.
Noun[edit]
- (fiction) A magical powder that would give the power of flight to whoever it was sprinkled on.
- 1911, J[ames] M[atthew] Barrie, Peter and Wendy, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 54:
- Of course Peter had been trifling with them, for no one can fly unless the fairy dust has been blown on him.
- (by extension) Any apparently magical ingredient or effect; a panacea.
- 2011 May 19, Megan McArdle, quoting Matt Yglesias, “When Should Governments Contract Out?”, in The Atlantic[1]:
- It's not that some magic private sector fairy dust makes the firms all be runs[sic] soundly. Lots of bad businesses are out there. But they tend to lose money and close.
- (slang) The drug phencyclidine.
- Synonym: angel dust
Translations[edit]
magical powder
|
any apparently magical ingredient or effect
|
See also[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- Jonathon Green (2024) “fairy dust n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang