Chapter Fainéant to Faith of F by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

Fairy
(Fair"y) n.; pl. Fairies [OE. fairie, faierie, enchantment, fairy folk, fairy, OF. faerie enchantment, F. féer, fr. LL. Fata one of the goddesses of fate. See Fate, and cf. Fay a fairy.] [Written also faëry.]

1. Enchantment; illusion. [Obs.] Chaucer.

The God of her has made an end,
And fro this worlde's fairy
Hath taken her into company.

Gower.

2. The country of the fays; land of illusions. [Obs.]

He [Arthur] is a king y-crowned in Fairy.

Lydgate.

3. An imaginary supernatural being or spirit, supposed to assume a human form either male or female, and to meddle for good or evil in the affairs of mankind; a fay. See Elf, and Demon.

The fourth kind of spirit [is] called the Fairy.

K. James.

And now about the caldron sing,
Like elves and fairies in a ring.

Shak.

5. An enchantress. [Obs.] Shak.

Fairy of the mine, an imaginary being supposed to inhabit mines, etc. German folklore tells of two species; one fierce and malevolent, the other gentle, See Kobold.

No goblin or swart fairy of the mine
Hath hurtful power over true virginity.

Milton.

Fairy
(Fair"y), a.

1. Of or pertaining to fairies.

2. Given by fairies; as, fairy money. Dryden.

Fairy bird (Zoöl.), the Euoropean little tern (Sterna minuta); — called also sea swallow, and hooded tern. — Fairy bluebird. (Zoöl.) See under Bluebird. — Fairy martin (Zoöl.), a European swallow (Hirrundo ariel) that builds flask-shaped nests of mud on overhanging cliffs. — Fairyrings or circles, the circles formed in grassy lawns by certain fungi (as Marasmius Oreades), formerly supposed to be caused by fairies in their midnight dances. — Fairy shrimp (Zoöl.), a European fresh-water phyllopod crustacean (Chirocephalus diaphanus); — so called from its delicate colors, transparency, and graceful motions. The name is sometimes applied to similar American species. — Fairy stone (Paleon.), an echinite.

Fairyland
(Fair"y*land`) n. The imaginary land or abode of fairies.

Fairylike
(Fair"y*like`) a. Resembling a fairy, or what is made or done be fairies; as, fairylike music.

Faith
(Faith) n. [OE. feith, fayth, fay, OF. feid, feit, fei, F. foi, fr. L. fides; akin to fidere to trust, Gr. pei`qein to persuade. The ending th is perhaps due to the influence of such words as truth, health, wealth. See Bid, Bide, and cf. Confide, Defy, Fealty.]

1. Belief; the assent of the mind to the truth of what is declared by another, resting solely and implicitly on his authority and veracity; reliance on testimony.

2. The assent of the mind to the statement or proposition of another, on the ground of the manifest truth of what he utters; firm and earnest belief, on probable evidence of any kind, especially in regard to important moral truth.

Faith, that is, fidelity, — the fealty of the finite will and understanding to the reason.

Coleridge.