Flair¹

[a. OF. and F. flair, f. flairier, flairer to smell:—popular L. flāgrāre, altered form of frāgrāre: see FRAGRANT.]

1

† 1. An odor, a smell. Obs.

2

c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 9017.

	And alle swete savours þat men may fele,
	War noght bot als stynk to regard of þat flayre.

3

a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 772. Syche a vennymous flayre flowe fro his lyppez.

4

ǁ 2. [mod.Fr.] Power of ‘scent,’ sagacious perceptiveness, instinctive discernment.

5

1881. Mrs. Lynn Linton, ‘My Love!’ I. 291. Gip, with the keen ‘flair’ of her kind, saw how things stood with poor Sandro Kemp.

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1885. Miss Braddon, Wyllard’s Weird, II. ii. 47. I see you have the true flair.

7

Flair1