Definition of "lair"

O dainty dew, O morning dew / That gleamed in the world's first dawn, did you / And the sweet grass and manful oaks / Give lair and rest / To him who toadwise sits and croaks / His death-behest?

a. 1881, Sidney Lanier, Strange Jokes

...Van Helsing stood up and said, "Now, my dear friends, we go forth to our terrible enterprise. Are we all armed, as we were on that night when first we visited our enemy's lair. Armed against ghostly as well as carnal attack?"

1897, Bram Stoker, chapter 21, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library

[H]e did a little scout work, and discovered the lair of that old woman.

1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, page 41

Then would I in Plenty's lap,For the first time take a nap;Falling back in easy lair,Sweetly slumb'ring in my chair;

1820, John Clare, “Address to Plenty in Winter”, in Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery‎, page 50

Wake ye, sleep ye, my hapless boy,In this homeless house of care?Lack ye the warmth of a mother's eyeOn the cauldrife, lonely lair?

1843 June, William Thom, “Extract from a Letter to J. Robertson, Esq.”, in Rhymes and Recollections of a Hand-loom Weaver, 3rd edition, London: Smith, Elder and Co., published 1847, page 136

We appreciate that this is a sensitive issue for lair owners and would like to assure them that the maintenance of the cemetery is carried out in a sensitive and dignified manner.

2018 August 2, BBC News, quoting Aberdeen City Council, “Dad 'will sleep by son's grave' to stop council clearing mementoes”, in BBC News‎

The lee-light that December giesWas lairing in the wast,Whan Christy wi' her oa claes,Was boun' to dree the blast.

1822, Hew Ainslie, “The Waesome Death O' Christy Ford”, in A Pilgrimage to the Land of Burns, Deptford: W. Brown, page 42

The walls, which are fixed direct into the ground without a plinth, are made of wattle and plastered with a thin lair of mud or cowdung.

1912, Central Provinces (India), Central Provinces District Gazetteers, page 96