Forms: 1 fæȝre; 3–4 as those of the adj. with the addition of -e; 5– coincident with those of the adj. [OE. fæʓre, fæʓer, FAIR a.] In a fair manner or degree.
1. In a beautiful or comely manner; agreeably, beautifully, brightly, handsomely, nobly.
a. 1000. Cædmon’s Gen., 210 (Gr.). Fæʓere leohte þæt liðe land lago yrnende.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gram., xxxviii. (Z.), 228. Fæʓere he syngþ.
c. 1175. Cott. Hom., 219 Þa wes þes tyendes hapes alder swiþe feir isceapen.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XXI. 71. Somme seiden he was godes sone · þat so faire deyede.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 108. Bowes blosmed feyre.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., i. 3 (Harl. MS.). The goode man toke an oþer wif, and faire endid his liffe.
a. 1568. Ascham, Scholem., II. (Arb.), 150. The Latin tong did faire blome.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., I. (1586), 5. So faire he bare his age, as I tooke him to be scarse fiftie.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., III. i. 142.
| The Moone shines faire. | |
| Ibid. (1600), A. Y. L., III. ii. 97. | |
| All the pictures fairest Linde | |
| are but blacke to Rosalinde. |
1632. Sir R. Le Grys, trans. Velleius Paterculus, 377. The excellent Generall who well understood what he went about, and preferred things profitable before such as shewed faire.
1738. Wesley, Psalms i. 3.
| The tree of righteousness shall rise, | |
| And all his blooming honours shew; | |
| Spread out his boughs and flourish fair, | |
| And fruit unto perfection bear. |
2. Civilly, courteously, kindly. Now only in phr. to speak (a person) fair.
a. 1000. Cædmon’s Gen., 2351 (Gr.).
| Him þa fæʓere frea ælmihtig, | |
| ece drihten, andswarode. |
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 53. Þis faȝe folc … speket … feire biforen heore euencristene.
c. 1205. Lay., 4842. Wha swa oðerne imette þer fæire hine igrætte.
1297. R. Glouc. (1724), 90. Morice þider com, and faire was vnderfonge.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 346.
| Þemperour … comande þe couherde curteysli and fayre, | |
| to heue vp þat hende child. |
c. 1450. Life of St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 5346. Þar come a monke and prayde him faire.
c. 1460. How the Goode Wif Thaught Hir Daughter, 65, in Hazl., E. P. P. (1864), 184. For alle ben nought trewe that faire spekyn, my leue childe.
c. 1530. Ld. Berners, Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814), 87. They that speaketh fayre, fayre shal here agayne.
1590. Shaks., Com. Err., III. ii. 186. So faire an offer’d Chaine.
1695. Congreve, Love for Love, III. iii. I spoke you fair, d’ye see, and civil.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xlv. The work-people humbled themselves before the offended dignitary, and spake him soft and fair.
a. 1866. Neale, Hymn, ‘Christian, dost thou see them.’
| Christian, dost thou hear them, | |
| How they speak thee fair? |
† b. (To keep, part) fair: i.e., on good terms with. Obs. or arch.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 2750. He … twynnys with þaim faire.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. i. 207. Tap for tap, and so part faire.
1641. Sir E. Nicholas, in The Nicholas Papers (Camden), I. 25. His Majestie takes infinite paynes, is in business from morninge until night and will certainly part fayre with this people.
1671–2. Sir C. Lyttelton, in Hatton Corr. (1878), 80. The Spaniard and wee shall still continue faire together.
1700. Dryden, Palamon & Arcite, II. 164.
| Thus fair they parted till the Morrows Dawn; | |
| For each had laid his plighted Faith to Pawn. |
1715. Lond. Gaz., No. 5332/1. To keep fair with the Persian Court.
1823. Scott, Quentin D., xxiii. We must keep fair with him.
3. In neat and legible handwriting; clearly, legibly, plainly.
1513. More, Richard III., in Grafton, Chron., II. 782. This Proclamacion … was … fayre written in Parchement.
1666. Pepys, Diary (1879), IV. 15. Up betimes to the office, to write fair a laborious letter.
1705. J. Blair, in W. S. Perry, Hist. Coll. Amer. Col. Ch., I. 151. A copy of those objections, which he promised as soon as it could be fair drawn out.
1774. Chesterf., Lett., I. xvi. 50. I desire that you would translate and copy it fair into a book.
1832. Fr. A. Kemble, Jrnl., in Rec. Girlh. (1878), III. 187. After tea I read Daru, and copied fair a speech I had been writing for an imaginary member of the House of Peers, on the Reform Bill.
1838. Card. Newman, Lett. (1891), II. 250. I then write it out fair for the printer.
4. Equitably, honestly, impartially, justly; according to rule. Also in phr. FAIR AND SQUARE.
c. 1300. Havelok, 224.
| For al was youen, faire and wel | |
| Þat him was leued no catel. |
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., III. i. 141. Heauen shield my Mother plaid my Father faire.
1680. Otway, Orphan, II. vii. I can never think you meant me fair.
a. 1764. Lloyd, Dial. betw. Author & Friend, Poet. Wks. 1774. II. 14. Read their works, examine fair.
1885. North Star, 1 July, 3/2. Lord Randolph … has ever hit fair.
† 5. In a proper or suitable manner; becomingly, befittingly. Also, fair and sweetly, fair and well.
1297. R. Glouc. (1724), 446. Kyng Henry … yburede ys þere [at Reading] vayre ynou.
c. 1340. Cursor M., 10448 (Trin.). Leue þi bere, Cloþe þe feire.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Chan. Yeom. Prol. & T., 560. He hem leyde faire and wel adoun.
c. 1430. Freemasonry, 608. Knele down fayre on bothe thy knen.
1483. Caxton, G. de la Tour, A j. Whiche fayre and swetely chastysed her doughters.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. cccix. 467. Fayre fared, quoth the constable, we are nat in mynde to do to our enemys so moche auantage.
1526. Tindale, 2 Cor. v. 11. Seynge then that we knowe howe the lorde is to be feared, we fare fayre [Luther fahren wir schôn] with men.
1544. Bale, Chron. Sir J. Oldcastell, in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), I. 271. Bury them [images] fayre in the ground.
a. 1568. Ascham, Scholem., I. (Arb.), 44. To ride faire, is most cumelie fur him selfe.
1607. Shaks., Cor., IV. vi. 118.
| You have made faire hands, | |
| You and your Crafts, you have crafted faire. |
1665. Dryden, Ind. Emperor, V. ii.
| I’le thus revenge thee with this Fatal blow; | |
| Stand fair, and let my Heart-blood on thee flow. |
6. With good promise; promisingly, auspiciously; favorably, prosperously. Obs. exc. in To bid, promise fair: see the vbs.
1154. O. E. Chron., an. 1154. Nu is abbot & fair haued begunnon.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. xi. 17. Faire mote he thee.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., II. ii. 123.
| The winde sits faire. | |
| Ibid. (1596), 1 Hen. IV., V. v. 43. | |
| Since this Businesse so faire is done | |
| Lett vs not leaue till all our owne be won. |
† b. With impers. vbs. used optatively. Fair be to you: prosperity attend you. Fair befall, cheve, fall: see the verbs. Obs. exc. arch.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., III. i. 46. Faire be to you my Lord.
1867. Jean Ingelow, Gladys, 306.
| O rare, | |
| The island! fair befall the island; let | |
| Me reach the island! |
† 7. Gently, quietly, without haste or violence. Chiefly in phrases, Fair and easily, evenly, softly.
a. 1000. Menologium (Fox), 314. He fæʓere mid wætere oferwearp wuldres cynebearn.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, V. 347. Þei take it wisely faire & softe.
c. 1430. Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, I. cxxxv. (1869), 71. If thei [the armour] ben heuy, go faire.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. xviii. 99. The oste … rode fayre and easely all the daye.
1552. Huloet. Fayre and … softlye, suspenso gradu.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 210. The proverb is old and true, ‘Fair and softly goeth far.’
1622. S. Ward, Life of Faith in Death (1627), 63. Sometimes he followes faire and a farre off, lingers aloofe and out of sight, etc.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. xxiii. He returned fair and softly.
1782. Cowper, Gilpin, 85.
| ‘So!’ ‘Fair and softly!’ John he cried, | |
| But John he cried in vain; | |
| The trot became a gallop soon | |
| In spite of curb and rein. |
1804. Mar. Edgeworth, Pop. Tales, Will, ix. Fair and softly goes far in a day.
† b. Moderately, not excessively. Obs.
c. 1450. Two Cookery-bks., 71. Leche it faire, but not to thyn. Ibid., 82. Roste hem faire.
8. Evenly, on a level. Chiefly dial.
1708. Lond. Gaz., No. 4422/7. The nine Sail stood in fair with us.
1877. N. W. Linc. Gloss., s.v. ‘Th’ table does n’t stand fair.’
1882. Daily Tel., 4 May. The plate does not lie fair on the frames.
† 9. Directly, straight, ‘due (north, etc.).’ Obs.
c. 1489. Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, xx. 449. Reynawd … wente fayre vpon the folke of Charlemagne.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe (1840), II. ii. 35. I came fair on the south side of my island. Ibid. (1720), Capt. Singleton xi. (1840), 185. In less than an hour they stood both fair after us, with all the sail they could make. Ibid., xv. (1840), 255. We stood away fair west, and held it out for about twenty days, when we discovered land right ahead.
b. With reference to a blow, etc.: ‘Clean,’ ‘full,’ plump, straight.
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 2229. Fayre on his fote he foundez on þe erþe.
1823. Scott, Quentin D., xiv. Striking his antagonist fair upon the breast.
1891. Blackw. Mag., CL. Nov., 651/2. When a sheep runs amuck, he is nothing less than a living catapult, that, if he took you fair, would knock the life out of you.
c. Completely, fully, quite. Cf. CLEAN adv. 5. Obs. exc. dial.
c. 1330. Amis and Amiloun, 2383.
| For to-morn thei schull beryed ben, | |
| As thei faire ded were. |
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 2230. Som … faire fest on a fyre att þe foure ȝates.
1457. Agnes Paston, in Past. Lett. (1787), I. xxxv. 144. I had leuer he wer fayr beryed than lost for defaute.
1494. Househ. Ord. (1780), 130. When he cometh to the church, lordes to take the image and chest downe, and beare him faire into the church.
1868. Atkinson, Cleveland Gloss., s.v. ‘It [a cat]’s fair wild.’
† d. Clearly, distinctly, plainly. Obs.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. II. 2. Þe feld ful of folke ich shal ȝow fayre shewe.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, Prol. 82.
| And here fynde shall ye faire of þe felle peopull, | |
| What kynges þere come of costes aboute. |
1628. Digby, Voy. Medit. (1868), 2. By euening we were gotten with a league of the straightes fleete, and had the pointe of the Lizard faire in sight on the starbord bowe of vs.
1697. Dampier, Voy. (1729), I. 256. We were fair in sight of Cape Corrientes.
10. Comb. a. With agent-nouns and vbl. sbs. forming sbs., as fair-dealer, -dealing, -doing, -seeming, -speaking.
1746. Lockman, To First Promoter Cambrick & Tea Bills, 25. A Craft, indeed, gives some *Fair-dealers pain.
1711. Shaftesb., Charac. (1737), I. 63. There is as much difference between one sort and another, as between *Fair-dealing and Hypocrisy; or between the genteelest Wit, and the most scurrilous Buffoonery.
1879. Farrar, St. Paul (1883), 443. Let them not be weary in *fair-doing.
1724. Savage, Sir T. Overbury, I. i. 6. The Statesman’s Promise, or false Patriot’s Zeal. Full of *fair Seeming, but Delusion all.
1483. Vulgaria abs Terentio, 25 b. If it wyll be wyth giffynge and *faire spekynge I shall nott be behynde.
b. With adjs., as fair-fierce, -seemly, -sweet, and with pres. pples. forming adjs., as fair-applauding, -blazing, -blooming, -boding, -dealing, -flowing, -glaring, -growing, -revolving, -seeming, -shining, -sounding, -speaking, -spreading, -winding.
1777. R. Potter, Æschylus’ The Supplicants, 1005.
| With honour, lovely virgins, with the voice | |
| Of *fair-applauding fame amidst our city. |
1726–46. Thomson, Winter, 312.
| In vain for him th’ officious Wife prepares | |
| The Fire *fair-blazing and the Vestment warm. |
1740. Shenstone, The Judgment of Hercules, 339. *Fair blooming health surveys her altars there.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., V. iii. 227.
| Rich. The sweetest sleepe, | |
| And *fairest boading Dreames, | |
| That euer entred in a drowsie head, | |
| Haue I since your departure had my Lords. |
1718. Freethinker, No. 14, 9 May, 96. When upon an intricate Debate, he sums up his Conclusions, he does it with Exactness and Integrity of a *fair-dealing, honourable Merchant, who settles a perplexed Accompt, without once reflecting whether he is to remain Debtor, or Creditor, upon the Ballance.
1580. Sidney, Arcadia (1613), 224–5. She, *faire-fierce, to such a state me calls.
1848. Clough, Amours de Voy., III. 85. The cypress-spires by the *fair-flowing stream.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., To the Reader, 49.
| Or if the banckes of full-spread Poesie, | |
| One violet Carpet less delight the Eye | |
| Then the *faire-Glareing Tulip,—pluck the flower, | |
| You are satis’fied,—& wee indeed are more. |
1870. Bryant, Iliad, II. XXI. 291.
| And made his feet to stagger, till he grasped | |
| A tall *fair-growing elm upon the bank. |
1708. J. Philips, Cyder, II. 521.
| And this, once Happy, Land | |
| By home-bred Fury rent, long groan’d beneath | |
| Tyrannic Sway, ’till *fair-revolving Years | |
| Our exil’d Kings, and Liberty restor’d. |
1625. K. Long, trans. Barclay’s Argenis, IV. xviii. 303. You know not what Kings the Subiects doe most honour: how often they dislike faire courses, and loue to be deluded with adulterate vertue, and *faire-seeming vice, that at last their affections may swarue from the generall good.
1776. ‘Courtney Melmoth’ [S. T. Pratt], Pupil of Pleasure, I. vii. Plausible exterior, fair-seeming sentiments, etc.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. ii. 30. *Faire-seemely pleasaunce each to other makes.
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., II. i. 40.
| What ere it bodes, henceforward will I beare | |
| Vpon my Targuet three *faire shining Sunnes. |
1798. Invasion, I. 227. Unsuspicious of the treachery concealed beneath words so *fair-sounding.
1871. E. F. Burr, Ad Fidem, iii. 38–9. But what shall I say of repose before achievement—before the work is half done, before anything has been done, and while the laboring powers are altogether vigorous and even fresh? We do not apply fair-sounding terms to that. No healthily constituted mind would think of calling such inaction fitting, graceful, honorable.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VI. xiii. (1495), 198. In a good wyfe byhoueth that she be *fayre spekynge.
1647. Clarendon, Contempl. on Ps., Tracts (1727), 517. To grapple with our fair-speaking adversaries.
1746. Thomson, Autumn, 245.
| Now to the dust gone down; his houses, lands, | |
| And once *fair-spreading family, dissolv’d. |
1581. Sidney, Astrophel & Stella, lxxxii.
| Sweet-gard’n-nymph, which keepes the cherrie-tree | |
| Whose fruit doth farre th’ Esperian tast surpasse, | |
| Most sweet-faire, most *faire-sweet, do not, alas, | |
| From comming neare those cherries banish mee. |
1746. Thomson, Summer, 1426.
| Slow let us trace the matchless vale of Thames; | |
| *Fair-winding up to where the Muses haunt. |
c. With pa. pples. forming adjs., as fair-betrothed, -bound, -built, -compacted, -contrived, -divided, -exstructed, -feathered, -folded, -forged, -plastered, -sculptural, -set, -sunned, -told, -written.
1608. Shaks., Per., V. iii. 71. This prince, the *fair-betrothed of your daughter.
1614. Bp. Hall, A Recollection of such Treatises, 129. Secretly comparing that vicious great man … to some goodly *faire bound Senecaes Tragedies, that is curiously gilded without.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. i. I., Eden, 372.
| Then at the *fair-built Bridge; which he doth judge | |
| More like a tradefull City then a Bridge. |
1655. H. Vaughan, Silex Scint., I. (1858), 49.
| Yea, I have knowne these shreds outlast | |
| A *faire-compacted frame, | |
| And for one Twenty we have past | |
| Almost outlive our name. |
1645. Quarles, Sol. Recant., 55. Thy *faire-contriv’d designes.
1746. Thomson, Autumn, 832.
| And send them o’er the *fair-divided earth | |
| In bounteous rivers to the deep again. |
1647. H. More, Song of Soul, II. iii. III. xxiii.
| If she should move about, then would she sling | |
| From of her self those *fair extructed loads | |
| Of carvèd stone. |
1607. A. Brewer, Lingua, I. i.
| So that a speech *faire fetherd could not flie, | |
| But thy eares pit-fall caught it instantly. |
1844. Ld. Houghton, Memorials of Many Scenes, To Landor, 144.
| For he was born, and fed his heart, as thou, | |
| On storied Fiesole’s *fair-folded brow. |
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. ii. 2. That *faire-forged spright.
1535. Coverdale, Ecclus. xxii. 17. Lyke as a *feyre playstred wall in a winter house.
1870. Bryant, Iliad, I. IV. 117.
| Wait ye for the hour | |
| When to your ships, with their *fair-sculptured prows. |
1648. Herrick, Hesper., I. 121. A full spread, *faire-set Vine.
1850. Mrs. Browning, Poems, II. 300.
| In prayers, that upward mount | |
| Like to a *fair-sunned fount. |
1548. Hall, Chron., 153. Whiche *faire told tale, allured to hym muche people.
1700. Prior, Carmen Seculare, 27 Her *fair-written page.
