Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. knowing, conceited, cheeky.

1838		Dickens Oliver Twist (1966) 87: ‘Tol de rol lol lol, right fol lairy, Work’us,’ said Noah.
1844		New Sprees of London 3: I'll introduce you to the Shicksters, Swells, Gonniffs, Leary Coves, Pentioners, Prigs, Cracksmen, Duffers, Smashers [etc].
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 78: Lairy and cautious to the green ones, never too fast.
1849		Bell’s Life in Sydney 5 May 2/6: A wire-haired young gentleman of the leary-kid order, who was remarkably silent on the subject of his own affairs.
1881		Dundee Courier (Scot.) 25 Mar, 7/4: One of the most successful ‘kiteflyers’ I ever knew was [...] ‘Larey Jim.’ ‘Larey’ means wide-awake and certainly ‘Larey Jim’ was wide-awake enough to deserve his pseudonym.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 3 Aug. 6/4: A lot Montie Arnold will care if all the leary lads from Albury to Casterton ‘scout’ him .
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 44: Leary, cunning, knowing looking.
1902		J. Masefield ‘Mother Carey’ in Salt-Water Ballads 49: You’re young, you thinks, ’n’ you’re lairy.
1959		D. Hewett Bobbin Up (1961) 12: They had done it for a lairy joke.
1959		F. Norman Fings I i: Once in golden days of yore / Ponces killed a lary whore.
1981		J. Sullivan ‘Christmas Crackers’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] You think you know the lot. Everything about you is – lairy.
1989		J. Hibberd Memoirs of an Old Bastard 156: Squeaky McLean entered and asked about that ‘ace little sawn-off, Herbie, and that lairy Chink, F. X. Ngo’.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 186: Real lairy blokes with them fat blue noses, you know, like real boozers have.
2000		Sun. Times News Rev. 12 Mar. 3: They had a conference and decided they should get lairy with me – but all it boiled down to was indignation.
2006		G. Malkani Londonstani (2007) 66: Fuck u, Jas, u lairy, lippy little shit, goes Hardjit.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 125: Don’t like that lairy cunt, never have; but [...] ah sort ay love him.

2. (Aus., also leary, leery) flashy, ostentatious, showy.

1898		Tocsin 15 Sept. 3: Height, about 5 ft. 6 1\2 in.; style ‘lairy’. Shop made suit, tight fit and cheap. Flower in slouched hat, well over eyes. ‘Silk’ rag around neck [AND].
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 25 Sept. 3/2: People think because I’m leary / That I don’t know what is love.
1912		Truth (Sydney) 29 Dec. 9/3: See the feemales togged to blazes, / Hobbled skirts and larey shoes.
1913		Truth (Sydney) 7 Sept. 12/4: Children like that on the town, / Flouting in impertinences, / In a leary blouse ahd gown.
1915		C.J. Dennis Songs of a Sentimental Bloke 125: Leery, vulgar; low.
1938		Dly Examiner (Grafton, NSW) 5 Feb. 7/5: Among the Australian proletariat, ‘lairy,’ ‘lairing up,’ and other improvisations upon the verb 'to lair' have been current for a number of years.
1943		Baker ‘Influence of American Sl. on Australia’ in AS XVIII:4 255: Leary means suspicious or inferior in the U.S.; we have changed the pronunciation to lairy and it means flashy, especially flashily dressed.
1945		Sun. Times (Perth) 23 Dec. n.p.: ‘Susie-Q’s’ boyfriend must be henpecked [...] to let her keep him 10 years behind the times by not wearing a ‘lairy’ tie.
1950		C. Harris Three-Ha’Pence to the Angel 38: Ain’t you a lairy thing! [...] Pink ones, eh!
1960		‘Nino Culotta’ Cop This Lot 183: You’re the one who wants the lairy togs.
1961		T. Taylor Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 103: His clothes were [...] all flash and larey, ice-blue gabardine, twenty-inch bottom slacks.
1969		F. Norman Norman’s London 86: They have a good strut around the gaff, showing off these double lairy suits.
1981		J. Sullivan ‘Christmas Crackers’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] del: What do you mean – lairy? rodney: Well just look at the way you’re dressed to begin with. You make Christmas trees look sombre.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 73: [R]enowned for such things as his lairy taste.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers xvii: Orm Bunter was a regular customer at late and lairy nightclubs like the Roosevelt and Chequers where he paraded some grouse-class charlies.
2003		Observer 8 June 3: They’re lairy, loaded and out on the lash.
2004		(con. 1960s-70s) T. Taylor Top Fellas 19/2: Throw in some spitting [...] and you cut a very lairy dash indeed.
2012		R. Milward Kimberly’s Capital Punishment (2023) 417: It’s not the tastiest tipple, and Shaun gets lairy after 70cl or so.
2021		C. Hammer Opal Country 308: The lairy clothes unique to golfers.
2021		L. McInerney Rules of Revelation 172: I couldn’t get my hands on any dope and drink just makes me lairy [...] I was bombing it.