Obs. [Back-formation from FAR-FETCHED.]

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  1.  A deeply-laid or cunning stratagem.

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a. 1562.  G. Cavendish, Life Wolsey (1827), 129. Ye may see when fortune beginneth to lower, how she can compass a matter to work displeasure by a far fetch.

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1566.  Gascoigne & Kinwelmarsh, Jocasta, II. i.

        To say the truth (mother) this minde of mine
Doth fleete full farre from that farfetch of his.

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1678.  Butler, Hud., III. ii. 1584.

        But Jesuits have deeper Reaches
In all their Politick Far-fetches.

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  2.  Fondness for far-fetched ideas.

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1813.  W. Taylor, Eng. Synonyms (1856), 64. Wieland had too fine a smell; his reader must be practised to be aware of his far-fetch.

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  3.  attrib. or adj. = FAR-FETCHED.

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1603.  Sir C. Heydon, Jud. Astrot., xviii. 365. Had he neuer printed it, this farre-fetch deriuation had neuer beene dearely ought.

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