fairy dust

Based on the story of the fictional character Peter Pan, see quotations.

fairy dust (uncountable)

1. (fiction) A magical powder that would give the power of flight to whoever it was sprinkled on.
   • 1911, J[ames] M[atthew] Barrie, Peter and Wendy, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 54:

     Of course Peter had been trifling with them, for no one can fly unless the fairy dust has been blown on him.

2. (by extension) Any apparently magical ingredient or effect; a panacea.
   • 2011 May 19, Megan McArdle, quoting Matt Yglesias, “When Should Governments Contract Out?”, in The Atlantic‎:

     It's not that some magic private sector fairy dust makes the firms all be runs^[sic] soundly. Lots of bad businesses are out there. But they tend to lose money and close.

3. (slang) The drug phencyclidine.

   Synonym: angel dust

   • 2001, Simon Logan, I-O, prime, →ISBN, page 102:

     This led to a certain amount of complacency on my part and certainly the fairy dust and mescaline cocktails I took day and night could only have contributed to my uncommonly satiated drive for a good fuck.

• pixie dust

• Jonathon Green (2024) “fairy dust n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang