adv. [f. AIRY a. + -LY2.] In an airy manner; see AIRY.
1. In a manner exposed to the air; thinly, lightly.
1797. Mrs. Radcliffe, Italian, vii. (1824), 566. If he had been as airily dressed as yourself.
1851. Hawthorne, Snow Image (1879), 23. Airily as she was clad.
1856. Kane, Arct. Explor., II. xi. 113. They were airily clad … and they soon crowded back into their ant-hill.
2. Lightly, delicately, etherially.
1869. Daily News, 15 Dec., 5/3 Their details are more picturesque … more quaintly, strangely, and airily wrought.
3. After the manner of the upper air; loftily.
1879. Tennyson, Lover’s T., 53. There be some hearts so airily built, that they … ride highly Above the perilous seas of Change and Chance.
4. With light hearts, gaily.
1833. Tennyson, Poems, 102. Singing airily, Standing about the charmèd root.
5. With ostentatious air; jauntily.
1766. Chalkley, Wks., 264. A young Baronet … who at first behaved airily.
1856. Miss Mulock, John Halifax (ed. 17), 401. She rose to her feet, smiling airly.
1859. Dickens, T. Two Cities, 121. ‘It is all the same,’ said the spy, airily, but discomfited too; ‘good day!’
