a. Obs. [f. FAR adv. + fet, pa. pple. of FET v. Obs.]

1

  1.  = FAR-FETCHED 1.

2

1579.  Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 93. Farre fet and deere bought is good for Ladyes.

3

1581.  Sidney, Astr. & Stella (1622), 536. Those far-fet helpes.

4

1613.  Beaum. & Fl., Honest Man’s Fort., III. iii.

        And, credit me, your far-fet viands please not
My appetite better than those that are near hand.

5

1671.  Milton, P. R., II. 401.

        Of these things others quickly will dispose,
Whose pains nave earn’d the far fet spoil.

6

  2.  = FAR-FETCHED 2.

7

1533.  More, Answ. Poisoned Bk., Wks. 1123/2. In … hys farre fet reason, neyther is hys maior true, nor hys argument toucheth not the matter.

8

1580.  Sidney, Arcadia, III. (1590), 360. Therewith he told her a farre-fet tale.

9

a. 1680.  Butler, Rem. (1759), II. 116. For Metaphors, he uses to chuse the hardest, and most far-fet that he can light upon.

10

  3.  as sb. (See quot.) rare–1.

11

1589.  Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, III. xvii. (Arb.), 193. The figure Metalepsis, which I call the farfet, as when we had rather fetch a word a great way off then to vse one nerer hand to expresse the matter aswel and plainer.

12