Meanings
ayre1
ayre2
plural ayres
- archaicArchaic spelling of air.
... Thus giues his sorrowes passage from his brest ; Sweet leaues (qd. he) which with the ayre doe tremble, Oh how your motions do my thoughts resemble, With that milde breath by which onely moue, Whisper my words in silence to my Loue ...
1870, Michael Drayton, Endimion and Phoebe: Ideas Latmus1 more example
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.
1856, Notes and Queries, page 425
Ayre3
- A sheading in the north of the Isle of Man.
Ayre4
Origin
ayre · noun
- Old Norseeyrr
- Englishayre
From an unattested Norn word, from Old Norse eyrr. Compare Icelandic eyri, Norwegian øyr.
More words from Old Norse
Full word history & related roots →Ayre · proper noun
- Old Norseeyrr“gravel bank”
- EnglishAyre
From Old Norse eyrr (“gravel bank”).
More words from Old Norse
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
ayre. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ayre
“ayre.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ayre. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “ayre,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ayre.
Source: ayre on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.