Ayre
name, noun ·1 syllable ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A narrow bar of sand or gravel formed by the sea; a sandbank.
- 2 Archaic spelling of air. alt-of, archaic
"It is precisely to this—not destruction, but dissolution—(for dissolve is the poet's word) this melting into thin ayre, of the world itself, that Tooke maintains the word rack, i. e. reek, to be most- appropriate. And I think he was right in so doing."
- 1 A sheading in the north of the Isle of Man.
- 2 A surname.
Example
More examples"It is precisely to this—not destruction, but dissolution—(for dissolve is the poet's word) this melting into thin ayre, of the world itself, that Tooke maintains the word rack, i. e. reek, to be most- appropriate. And I think he was right in so doing."
Etymology
From Old Norse eyrr (“gravel bank”).
English and Scottish surname, variant of Ayer.
From an unattested Norn word, from Old Norse eyrr. Compare Icelandic eyri, Norwegian øyr.
Related phrases
More for "ayre"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.