lair

English

Etymology

From Old English leġer (“couch, bed”), from Proto-Germanic *legrą, from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ-.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /lɛə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /lɛəɹ/
• Rhymes: -ɛə(r)

Noun

lair (plural lairs)

1. A place inhabited by a wild animal, often a cave or a hole in the ground.
2. (figuratively) A place inhabited by a criminal or criminals, a superhero or a supervillain.
   • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula Chapter 21

     ...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?"

Synonyms

• (of an animal): burrow (of some smaller mammals), den (of a lion or tiger)
• (of a criminal): den, hide-out

Translations

of an animal

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 巢穴 (zh) (cháoxué), 獸穴 (zh), 兽穴 (shòuxué), 獸窟, 兽窟 (shòukū), 獸窩, 兽窝 (shòuwō)

• Czech: doupě n
• Finnish: pesä (fi)
• French: tanière (fr) f, antre (fr) m
• Georgian: ბუნაგი (bunagi)
• German: Bau (de) m, Höhle (de) f
• Hungarian: odú (hu)
• Italian: tana (it) f
• Japanese: 巣窟 (そうくつ, sōkutsu)
• Latvian: miga (lv) f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: hi (no) n

  Nynorsk: hi n

• Portuguese: toca (pt) f
• Romanian: vizuină (ro) f
• Russian: логово (ru) n (lógovo), берлога (ru) f (berlóga), нора (ru) f (norá)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ја̏збина f

  Roman: jȁzbina f

• Slovak: brloh m
• Slovene: brlog (sl) m ?
• Spanish: guarida (es) f
• Swedish: bohåla c, håla (sv) c, gryt (sv) n, kula (sv) c, lya (sv) c

of a criminal

• Finnish: piilo (fi), piilopaikka (fi)
• French: antre (fr) m
• Greek: κρησφύγετο (el) n (krisfýgeto), λημέρι (el) n (liméri)
• Hungarian: búvóhely (hu)
• Italian: covo m
• Russian: логово (ru) n (lógovo), притон (ru) m (pritón)

• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ја̏збина f, бр́лог m, ја̏ма f

  Roman: jȁzbina f, bŕlog m, jȁma 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)

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

Anagrams

• aril
• lari
• liar
• lira
• rail
• rial

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Manx

Noun

lair f

1. Alternative form of laair.

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Scots

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlair/
• Rhymes: -er

Noun

lair (plural lairs)

1. lore

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