FAIRY GODMOTHER

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does fairy godmother mean? 

• FAIRY GODMOTHER (noun)
  The noun FAIRY GODMOTHER has 2 senses:

1. a generous benefactor

2. a female character in some fairy stories who has magical powers and can bring unexpected good fortune to the hero or heroine

  Familiarity information: FAIRY GODMOTHER used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FAIRY GODMOTHER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A generous benefactor

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("fairy godmother" is a kind of...):

benefactor; helper (a person who helps people or institutions (especially with financial help))

Sense 2

Meaning:

A female character in some fairy stories who has magical powers and can bring unexpected good fortune to the hero or heroine

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("fairy godmother" is a kind of...):

faerie; faery; fairy; fay; sprite (a small being, human in form, playful and having magical powers)

 Context examples 

The feeble fingers were never idle, and one of her pleasures was to make little things for the school children daily passing to and fro, to drop a pair of mittens from her window for a pair of purple hands, a needlebook for some small mother of many dolls, penwipers for young penmen toiling through forests of pothooks, scrapbooks for picture-loving eyes, and all manner of pleasant devices, till the reluctant climbers of the ladder of learning found their way strewn with flowers, as it were, and came to regard the gentle giver as a sort of fairy godmother, who sat above there, and showered down gifts miraculously suited to their tastes and needs.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)