fey

adjective

ˈfā 

1

a

chiefly Scotland : fated to die : doomed

b

: marked by a foreboding of death or calamity

… another and lesser man … gave a fey lonely warning.

—Hodding Carter

2

a

: able to see into the future : visionary

Not being fey, he never suspected what it would lead to.

b

: marked by an otherworldly air or attitude

She had that half shy, half fey smile and that birdlike perkiness …

—A. G. Ogden

c

: not mentally sound : touched

3

a(1)

: excessively refined : fastidious

a fey, self-indulgent dandy

… the habits of the fey European nobility.

—Daniel Gross

He should also resist the urge to bring high-end camping equipment to protests—this will make him look fey and elitist.

—Jeffrey Goldberg

(2)

: effeminate

… a fey young lad … with his nose buried in fashion magazines, putting on fashion shows in the attic with his sister, garbed in their mum's clothes.

—Hank Trout

I didn't see myself in the men in the catalog—I was too young, round, and fey—but I saw myself making out with them, one day …

—Erik Piepenburg

I was a bit fey. I remember Brian [Jones] being rather critical of me once because he thought I was too feminine.

—Mick Jagger, speaking in My Life as a Rolling Stone

b

: quaintly unconventional : campy

… a closet full of fey neon pants.

—Stacey Anderson

… audiences howl at her off-center delivery of fey folk songs and quaint special material.

—Howard Teichmann

feyly adverb

feyness noun

Did you know?

Fey is a word that defies its own (original) meaning, since it has yet to even come close to the brink of death after being in our language for well over 800 years. In Old and Middle English it meant "feeble" or "sickly." Those meanings turned out to be fey themselves, but the word lived on in senses related to death, and because a wild or elated state of mind was once believed to portend death, other senses arose from these. The word fay, meaning "fairy" or "elf," may also have had an influence on some senses of fey. Not until the 20th century did the word's most recent meanings, "precious" and "campy," find their way into the dictionary.

Examples of fey in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The film casts Courtenay as Norman, the devoted, slightly fey dresser to a declining Shakespearean actor (Finney) touring England during the Blitz. — Seth Abramovitch, HollywoodReporter, 19 May 2026

And the spacious rooms are fit for a man’s man like Duke Wayne, not a fey faux-cowboy like Kevin Costner – just sayin’! — David Weiss, Forbes.com, 27 Apr. 2026

Michael Urie plays Prince Dauntless as a slightly dim, slightly fey, entirely winning sweetie. — Christopher Bonanos, Vulture, 12 Aug. 2024

Sharp cheekbones, Pan-like movements that were more fey than androgynous. — Elizabeth Winder, Rolling Stone, 24 July 2023

Back at work, she is eyed by her co-workers, the wonderfully fey Shane (Griffin Matthews) and the middle-aged worrier Megan (the terrific Rosie Perez). — Doreen St. Félix, The New Yorker, 28 Dec. 2020

His business rivals include the louche Chinese gangster Dry Eye (Crazy Rich Asians’ Henry Golding) and a drab little ferret of a man called Matthew (Succession star Jeremy Strong, who delivers every line in a sort of strange, fey deadpan). — Leah Greenblatt, EW.com, 23 Jan. 2020

Word History

Etymology

Middle English feye, from Old English fǣge; akin to Old High German feigi doomed and perhaps to Old English fāh hostile, outlawed — more at foe

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Rhymes for fey

• ay
• bay
• bey
• brae
• cay
• chez
• dey
• dray
• fay
• flay
• fray
• frey

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