a. [f. FAR adv. + OFF adv., formerly written as two words.]

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  1.  Far distant, remote, a. In space. b. In time. c. In relationship.

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  a.  1590.  Shaks., Mids. N., IV. i. 194.

          Deme.  These things seeme small and undistinguishable,
Like farre off mountaines turned into Clouds.

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1632.  Milton, Penseroso, 74.

        Oft, on a plat of rising ground,
I hear the far-off curfeu sound,
Over some wide-water’d shore,
Swinging slow with sullen roar.

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1794.  Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, vii. The far-off low of cattle which she saw coming slowly on between the trunks of trees.

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1816.  J. Wilson, City of Plague, II. i. 197.

          Frank.  O ’tis the curse of absence that our love
Becomes too sad—too tender—too profound
Towards all our far-off friends.

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1840.  Dickens, Barn. Rudge, II. xiv. The far-off places in which he had been wandering.

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1855.  Milman, Lat. Chr. (1864), IX. XIV. viii. 280. The light rails of the chancel were sufficent, with their own inherent majesty, to keep the profane on their lower level, and in their humble posture of far-off adoration.

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  b.  1850.  Tennyson, In Mem., i.

        But who shall so forecast the years
    And find in loss a gain to match?
    Or reach a hand thro’ time to catch
The far-off interest of tears?

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1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 77, The Republic, Introduction. Philosophy … as the far-off result of the working of many minds in many ages.

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1877.  A. H. Edwards, Up Nile, i. 18. The manifold phases through which the arts and architecture of Egypt had passed since those far-off days of Cheops and Chephren.

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  c.  1828.  Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. III. (1863), 90. I … am but a far-off kinswoman.

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  2.  absol. In the far off: in the distance.

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1884.  Sala, Journ. due South, I. xxv. (1887), 339. The eternal but subdued resonance of Niagara in the far-off.

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  Hence Far-offness, the state or fact of being far-off, distance.

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1873.  R. S. Candlish, Serm., v. 93. My … helpless far-offness from God.

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1877.  Mallock, The New Republic, IV. ii. II. 208. But ah! the weariness, the far-offness of it all.

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