give someone the air
Dated American slang meaning to dump, jilt, or coldly dismiss a romantic partner.
Definitions
Dated American slang meaning to dump, jilt, or coldly dismiss a romantic partner. To give someone the air is to metaphorically blow them off — leaving them standing alone in nothing but fresh air where your presence used to be. Popular in early-to-mid twentieth-century American speech, the phrase appears in crime fiction and jazz-era dialogue. Nowadays it reads as charmingly old-fashioned, though the sentiment is as timeless as heartbreak itself.
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(slang, dated) To jilt or ditch a lover.
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A dated slang phrasal verb meaning to speak loudly, boastfully, or at length without much concern for the audience. The air element suggests ventilating one's views into open space unchecked. Now largely obsolete in everyday speech, though the concept survives in the phrase airing grievances. Rarely used in contemporary conversation outside dialect or historical contexts. Not likely to be understood by most modern speakers without explanation.
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