Definition of "airy-fairy" []

• One that is insubstantial or impractical: "They'd wanted him for Ambassador in Paris but he'd turned it down; he'd no patience with the airy-fairies” ( John le Carré). (noun)
• Insubstantial or impractical: "You are talking about some airy fairy concept which will never come in my lifetime” ( Margaret Thatcher). (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "We found a couple that were not too touristy and not of the airy-fairy, fluffy-bunny variety, which was refreshing."
• "I recommend you find a qualified legal advisor for definitive answers to your questions, if such people do, in fact, exist outside my fantasies. just recall Alaska being pretty airy-fairy when it came to the letter of the law, or anything else."
• "Even the title had a Rayner story lurking behind it: "Now with wings" was the slogan used to promote a new sanitary towel with flaps in the 80s, one of only two TV commercials she ever agreed to do – because, as Sandi Toksvig explained, Claire was fed up with "airy-fairy adverts with women leaping around in trousers or diving into swimming pools"."