pixie

Noun

1. A playful sprite or elflike or fairy-like creature.
   • Then she saw pixies — dozens and dozens of pixies — dancing and singing. - 2005, Dan Keding, “The Pixies’ Bed”, in Dan Keding, Amy Douglas, editors, English Folktales, page 98:
   • When she looked around, Mary saw four pixies flying toward her. She had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit. Then the pixies turned around and attacked again. - 2005, Kathryn Reyes, Mystery Door Manor and the...
   • The servant that had raised him, an elderly pixie called Rolog, had died. On his deathbed he had called the young Captain to his side. Seeing the pixie dying had had no effect on him. - 2007, Jeremy Phillips, The...

   Synonyms: brownie fair gnome imp sprite

2. A cute, petite woman with short hair.
   • Then a pixie appears in the visitor window, round face, big brown eyes framed in thick liner, a tiny turned-up nose, red lips, inch-long blue-black hair so popular with the avant-garde. - 2006, Darnell Arnoult,...
   • Petite and narrow-waisted, with a pixie flip of hair the exact color of coffee beans, Abigail could easily pass for sixteen in a pair of ripped jeans and an Abercrombie T-shirt. - 2009, Nicole Baart, The Moment Between,...
   • Petite in the extreme, not even reaching five feet tall, Winchester at her most robust had approached one hundred pounds. No longer the bright-eyed, sophisticated pixie that Isaiah Taber had photographed so many years...
3. An upper-atmospheric optical phenomenon associated with thunderstorms, a short-lasting pinpoint of light on the surface of convective domes that produces a gnome.
4. A butterfly of the genus Melanis.
5. Ellipsis of pixie cut.
   • “Have you thought about a haircut? A pixie or a bob?” - 2016, Susan Wiggs, Starlight on Willow Lake, page 114:
   • In a picture posted to Instagram on June 28, the stylish star [Lizzo] showed off her new, lighter brows and a blonde pixie that we suspect comes courtesy of a wig but can't be sure. - 2021 June 29, Elizabeth Logan,...