1. Brought from far. Obs. exc. arch. † Of a pedigree: Traced from a remote origin.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., I. (1879), 33. Farrefetched and deare boughte is good for Ladyes, they say.
1586. Cogan, Haven Health, clxxxvii. (1639), 169. Ther is a kind of Muskles in which Pearles are found, and though Indian pearles be greatest and more desired as being far fetched, yet certaine it is (as Matth. writeth) that pearles doe grow and are gotten, in the west Ocean about England and Scotland.
1634. W. Wood, New Eng. Prosp., Ded. I count it the least part of my service to present the first fruites of my farre-fetcht experience, to the kinde acceptance of your charitable hands.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., VI. (1703), II. 162. A far fetch’d Pedigree, through so many hundred years.
1658. W. Burton, Comm. Itin. Antoninus, 20. Oysters taken there, and conveyed thence to Rome, among other farfetcht Dainties.
1769. De Foe’s Tour Gt. Brit., I. 254. According to the old Saying, Far-fetch’d, and dear bought, is fittest for the Ladies.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 243.
| He dips his bowl into the weedy ditch, | |
| And, heavy laden, brings his bev’rage home, | |
| Farfetch’d and little worth. |
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., III. IV. 71.
| She reached her fine strong hand anear | |
| The far-fetched thing. |
† b. Devious, circuitous. (Cf. to fetch a compass.)
a. 1656. Bp. Hall, Rem., Wks. (1660), 48. Others by secret and far-fetch’t passages escaped home.
2. Of an argument, notion, simile, etc.: Studiously sought out; not easily or naturally introduced; strained.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 99. Democritus and other … give other reasons, but … they seem to be far fetched.
1647. Cowley, Mistress, Wish, iv.
| Pride and Ambition here, | |
| Only in far-fetch’d metaphors appear. |
1732. Berkeley, Alciphr., II. § 1. To prove my point I shall not trouble you with Authorities or far-fetched Arguments, but bring you to plain Matter of Fact.
1844. H. Rogers, Ess. (1860), I. 76. To spoil a series of felicitous railleries by some far-fetched conceit, or unpardonable extravagance.
1869. Trollope, He Knew, lxxxi. (1878), 450. Far-fetched ideas respecting English society.
Hence Far-fetchedness, the state or fact of being far-fetched.
a. 1849. Poe, E. B. Browning, Wks. 1864, III. 415. Occasionally, we meet in Miss Barrett’s poems a certain far-fetchedness of imagery, which is reprehensible in the extreme.
1866. Times, 6 April, 5. No excuse for extreme quaintness, oddity, and far-fetchedness.
