leprechaun

lep·re·chaun

noun \ˈlep-rə-ˌkän, -ˌkȯn\

Definition of LEPRECHAUN

: a mischievous elf of Irish folklore usually believed to reveal the hiding place of treasure if caught

— lep·re·chaun·ish \-ˌkä-nish, -ˌkȯ-\ adjective

Examples of LEPRECHAUN

1. <the story that if you follow a rainbow to its end, you'll find a leprechaun's pot of gold>

Origin of LEPRECHAUN

Irish leipreachán

First Known Use: 1604

Related to LEPRECHAUN

Synonyms

brownie, dwarf, elf, faerie (also faery), fay, gnome, goblin, gremlin, hobgoblin, kobold, fairy, pixie (also pixy), puck, sprite, troll

Related Words

little people; kelpie, nixie; changeling; imp; banshee, ghoul, hag, ogre

Rhymes with LEPRECHAUN

Abadan, Acheron, Ahriman, aileron, alençon, amazon, Amazon, amnion, and so on, antiphon, Aragon, autobahn, balmacaan, Bantustan, baryon, Basilan, bear down on, beat up on, betatron, biathlon, cabochon, call upon, calutron, carillon, carry-on, carry on, celadon, check up on, chorion, colophon, come upon, Culiacán, cyclotron, decagon, decathlon, demijohn, dine out on, early on, echelon, electron, elevon, enteron, epsilon, ethephon, etymon, fall back on, fermion, follow-on, Genghis Khan, get it on, go back on, going on, goings-on, gonfalon, Grand Teton, graviton, hanger-on, harijan, helicon, heptagon, hereupon, hexagon, hold out on, hopping John, Huascarán, hyperon, Isfahan, isochron, Kublai Khan, Kyrgyzstan, lay eyes on, Lebanon, liaison, Lipizzan, load up on, logion, looker-on, macédoine, marathon, Marathon, marzipan, mastodon, Mazatlán, Miquelon, miss out on, morion, move in on, myrmidon, nonagon, noumenon, nucleon, Oberon, octagon, off and on, omicron, Oregon, organon, ostracon, Pakistan, Palawan, pantheon, paragon, Parmesan, parmigiana, Parthenon, peloton, pentagon, pentathlon, Percheron, Phlegethon, Phocion, pick up on, polygon, positron, Procyon, put-upon, Rajasthan, Ramadan, ride herd on, run low on, run out on, run upon, set eyes on, set foot on, set upon, silicon, sneak up on, Süleyman, tachyon, Taiyuan, talkathon, telamon, telethon, thereupon, tie one on, triathlon, Tucumán, upsilon, virion, walkathon, walk out on, whereupon, woebegone, work upon, Yerevan, Xiangtan, Zahedan

leprechaun

noun    (Concise Encyclopedia)

Leprechaun, illustration by George Denham, from The Irish Fairy Book by …—Courtesy of the Folklore Society Library, University College, London; photograph, R.B. Fleming

In Irish folklore, a fairy in the form of a tiny old man wearing a cocked hat and leather apron. Solitary by nature, leprechauns lived in remote places and worked as shoemakers. Each was believed to possess a hidden crock of gold. If captured and threatened, a leprechaun might reveal the gold's hiding place, provided his captor never took his eyes off him. Usually the captor was tricked into glancing away, and the leprechaun vanished. The word derives from the Old Irish luchorpan (“little body”).