| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| air |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  âr |
| NOUN: | 1a. A colorless, odorless, tasteless, gaseous mixture, mainly nitrogen (approximately 78 percent) and oxygen (approximately 21 percent) with lesser amounts of argon, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, neon, helium, and other gases. b. This mixture with varying amounts of moisture and particulate matter, enveloping the earth; the atmosphere. 2a. The sky; the firmament. b. A giant void; nothingness: The money vanished into thin air. 3. An atmospheric movement; a breeze or wind. 4. Aircraft: send troops to Europe by air. 5a. Public utterance; vent: gave air to their grievances. b. The electronic broadcast media: “often ridiculed . . . extremist groups on air” (Christian Science Monitor). 6. A peculiar or characteristic impression; an aura. 7. Personal bearing, appearance, or manner; mien. 8. airs An affected, often haughty pose; affectation. See synonyms at affectation. 9. Music a. A melody or tune, especially in the soprano or tenor range. b. A solo with or without accompaniment. 10. Air conditioning. 11. Archaic Breath. | | VERB: | Inflected forms: aired, air·ing, airs
| | TRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To expose so that air can dry, cool, or freshen; ventilate. 2. To give vent to publicly: airing my pet peeves. See synonyms at vent1. 3. To broadcast on television or radio: “The ad was submitted to CBS . . . which accepted and aired it” (New York). | | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | To be broadcast on television or radio: “tidbits that will air on tonight's 6 o'clock news” (Terry Ann Knopf). | | ADJECTIVE: | 1. Of or relating to the air or the movement of air: an air tube. 2. Existing or living in the air; aerial. 3. Powered by compressed air: an air horn. 4. Containing or inflated by air. 5. Of or relating to aircraft or aeronautics. 6. Of or relating to the broadcast or transmission of radio or television signals. 7. Imaginary or unreal: “The guy had just hit it big . . . after ten years of eating air sandwiches” (Jonathan Kellerman, Blood Test 1986). | | IDIOMS: | in the air Abroad; prevalent: Excitement was in the air. up in the air Not yet decided; uncertain. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Partly from Middle English air, gas, atmosphere (from Old French, from Latin   r, from Greek; see wer-1 in Appendix I) and partly from French air, nature, quality, place of origin (from Latin ager, place, field; see agriculture, and Latin rea, open space, threshing floor; see area). N., sense 9, from French air, tune, from Italian aria. See aria.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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