airs

1. 1
   noun

   Affected manners that someone puts on to impress others or seem superior.

   Her relatives resented the airs she adopted after marrying into wealth.

   The new manager's airs grated on everyone within a week.

   Similaraffectations, pretensions

   Note

   Usually found inside two set phrases: put on airs and give oneself airs. The singular works differently. An air of confidence is a neutral impression, but airs are always pretense, so one sentence can hold both, with an air of confidence that turns out to be just airs. The plural carries the disapproval, and that is the word to reach for when calling out a pose.

   She put on airs, pretending to be more sophisticated than she was.

   Stop giving yourself such airs—we all know you.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of air.

   The musician collected dozens of traditional airs from the highlands.

   Sweet airs from the courtyard reached the upper windows.

   Note

   A plural that most senses of air resist. The gas we breathe is a mass noun, so nobody speaks of airs of nitrogen. The plural belongs to the countable uses: breaths of freshness, as in sweet airs drifting through a window, or a place's particular atmosphere and its effect on health. Don't confuse it with the 'affected manners' meaning, which shares the spelling but not the sense.

3. 3
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of air.

   Each morning she airs the bedroom before breakfast.

   The network airs the program at nine o'clock on weeknights.

   Note

   The verb's present tense with he, she or it, spelled the same as the plural noun. Most uses take an object: she airs the bedroom, he airs his grievances. Broadcasting can also run without one, with the program itself as subject, as in the series airs on Fridays. In British Multicultural London English slang, someone who airs you is ignoring you.

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