lairy

lairy (comparative lairier, superlative lairiest)

1. (Britain) Touchy, aggressive or confrontational, usually while drunk.

   Don't get lairy with me!

   • 2001. "rush to order". Simon Stuart, Glasgow Sunday Herald, 14 October.

     "There's always been a weird duality at the heart of New Order: the fact that three druggy, lairy Mancs and the drummer's girlfriend can craft music of such awesome emotive power as to make grown neds weep."

   • 2002. “‘We wouldn′t dream of making you feel fat’”. Glasgow Herald, 27 July.

     "Unskinny was a self-published riot of large lasses getting lairy in northern towns, and did a reasonable trade via friends and comic shops."

   • 2002. "Live With Chris Moyles". Gareth McLean, The Guardian, September 24.

     "The show is lairy, loud and laddish; it does exactly what it says on the tin."

   • 2005. Stuart: A Life Backwards, Alexander Masters.

     "I started to get a bit lairy, agitated on drink."

   • 2005. "Women do make the worst drunks. Maybe it's the sick'n'sequin mix...". Rowan Pelling, The Independent on Sunday, 20 November.

     "Obviously, I'm not beginning to suggest women commit as much violent crime as men when plastered. But I do now concede that being aggressive, ignorant, lairy and foul-mouthed suits the ladies even less than it suits the fellas."

Thought to be from leery (“knowing, streetwise”).[1]

lairy (comparative lairier, superlative lairiest)

1. (Australia) Vulgar and flashy.
   • 1983, National Book Council (Australia), Australian Book Review, Issues 48-57, page 29,

     He was lairy alright, resplendent in a purple blazer and pink trousers.

   • 2008, Helen Garner, True Stories, page 255,

     They had no wedding party, only an Australian couple in their sixties, the woman in a great deal of pancake and blusher and a lairy fur jacket.

   • 2009, Sally Neighbour, The Mother of Mohammed: An Australian Woman′s Extraordinary Journey Into Jihad, page 176,

     Sungkar told Rabiah he thought of her as he rode to freedom on his motor scooter through the green wrought-iron gates, disguised in a pair of blue jeans and a lairy short-sleeved batik shirt: ‘Rabiah reckoned the safari suit was bad—if only she could see me now’.

2. (Australia) Socially unacceptable.

• lairiser

• airly, riyal