Obs. Also 7 Sc. faird, feard. [ad. F. fard-er, f. fard: see prec.]
1. trans. To paint (the face) with fard, to hide defects and improve the complexion.
a. 1450. Knt. de la Tour (1868), 69. A lady that y knewe, that folke saide she popped and farded her.
c. 1620. Z. Boyd, Zion’s Flowers (1855), 69.
| I farded have my face with fard most rare, | |
| To fire his eye my lilly breast is bare. |
1653. A. Wilson, Jas. I., 56. That Beauty … so farded and sophisticated with some Court Drug.
absol. 1584. Hudson, Du Bartas’ Judith, in Sylvester’s Du Bartas, 738.
| He frisles and he fards, | |
| He oynts, he bathes. |
2. transf. and fig. To embellish or gloss over (anything).
1549. Compl. Scot., Prol. 16. I thocht it nocht necessair til hef fardit ande lardit this tracteit vitht exquiste termis.
1606. Birnie, Kirk-Buriall (1838), 11. Our funerals wherewith wi but feard death.
1637. Gillespie, Eng.-Pop. Cerem., III. ii. 31. Those Ceremonies, are the very meretricious bravery, and inveagling trinkets, wherewith the Romish Whoore doth faird and paint her self, whiles she propineth to the world the cup of her fornications.
1674. Petty, Disc. Dupl. Proportion, Ded. A v. For, Falsity, Disproportion, and Inconsistence cannot be rectified by any sermocinations, though made all of figurate and measured periods, pronounced in Tune and Cadence, through the most advantageous organs; much less by Grandisonous or Euphonical Nonsence, farded with formality; no more than vicious Wines can be remedied with Brandy and Honey, or ill Cookery with enormous proportions of Spice and Sugar.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., xxi. Nor will my conscience permit me to fard or daub over the causes of divine wrath.
Hence † Farded ppl. a. † Farding vbl. sb., the action of the vb. FARD, the effect produced by this. † Farding ppl. a.
1637. Rutherford, Lett., lxxxii. (1863), I. 208. It is violence to corrupt nature for a man to be holy, to lie down under Christ’s feet, to quit will, pleasure, worldly love, earthly hope, and an itching of heart after this farded and over-gilded world, and to be content that Christ trample upon all.
a. 1651. Calderwood, Hist. Kirk (1678), 458. They but abuse his Maj. with words, and mask a feigned heart with the vail of fairded language, thinking thereby to devolve the whole weight of the former imputation upon me.
a. 1763. Shenstone, Economy, II. 140.
| There of the farded fop, and essenc’d beau, | |
| Ferocious with a stoic’s frown, disclose | |
| Thy manly scorn, averse to tinsel pomp. |
1545. Raynold, Byrth Mankynde, Prol. (1634), 6. Vtterly abhorring and defying all farding, painting, and counterfeit cast colours.
1681. Colvil, Whigs Supplic. (1751), 153.
| I’ll use no Speech with art besprinkled, | |
| Like Fairding on a Face that’s wrinkled. |
1637. Gillespie, Eng.-Pop. Cerem., Ep. A iij. Her comely countenance is miscoloured with the farding lustre of the mother of Harlotes.
