fair

Clearly, openly, frankly, civilly, honestly, favorably, auspiciously, agreeably.

Adjective

  1. Beautiful, of a pleasing appearance, with a pure and fresh quality.
    • Monday's child is fair of face.
    • There was once a knight who wooed a fair young maid.
    • He is so fayre, withoutten les, / he semys full well to sytt on des. - 15th c., “[The Creation]”, in Wakefield Mystery Plays; Re-edited in George England, Alfred W. Pollard, editors, The Towneley Plays (Early English...

    Synonyms: beautiful pretty lovely

  2. Unblemished (figuratively or literally); clean and pure; innocent.
    • one's fair name
    • After scratching out and replacing various words in the manuscript, he scribed a fair copy to send to the publisher.
    • The Table hauing at the Communion time a faire white linnen cloth vpon it, shall stand in the body of the Church, or in the Chancell, where Morning prayer and Euening prayer be appointed to be said. - 1605, “The order...

    Synonyms: pure clean neat

  3. Light in color, pale, particularly with regard to skin tone but also referring to blond and red hair.
    • She had fair hair and blue eyes.
    • the northern people large and fair-complexioned - 1677, Matthew Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, page 200:
    • This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking. In complexion fair, and with blue or gray eyes, he was tall as any Viking, as broad in the shoulder. - 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The...

    Synonyms: pale

    Antonyms: swarthy

  4. Just.
    • He must be given a fair trial.
    • “[…] it is not fair of you to bring against mankind double weapons ! Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to...

    Synonyms: honest equitable rightful

  5. Adequate, reasonable, or decent, but not excellent.
    • Their performance has been only fair.
    • The patient was in a fair condition after some treatment.
    • My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to...

    Synonyms: OK okay

  6. Favorable to a ship's course.
    • I shipped with them and becoming friends, we set forth on our venture, in health and safety; and sailed with a fair wind, till we came to a city called Madínat-al-Sín; […] - 1885–1888, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl....
  7. Favorable, pleasant.
    • The weather was fair today.

    1. Not overcast; cloudless; clear.

      • a fair sky
      • They had good weather and tolerably fair winds, and before they entered the Straits of Magellan the captain had formulated a plan for the disposition of Garta. - 1909, Frank R. Stockton, The adventures of Captain Horn,...

    2. Free from obstacles or hindrances; unobstructed; unencumbered; open; direct; said of a road, passage, etc.

      • a fair mark; in fair sight; a fair view
      • The caliphs obtained a mighty empire, which was in a fair way to have enlarged. - c. 1610?, Walter Raleigh, A Discourse of War:
  8. Without sudden change of direction or curvature; smooth; flowing; said of the figure of a vessel, and of surfaces, water lines, and other lines.
  9. Between the baselines.
  10. Taken direct from an opponent's foot, without the ball touching the ground or another player.
  11. Not a no ball.
  12. Of a coin or die, having equal chance of landing on any side, unbiased.
    • A fair coin has a 50% chance of landing on heads.

Origin

From Middle English fayr, feir, fager, from Old English fæġer (“beautiful”), from Proto-West Germanic *fagr, from Proto-Germanic *fagraz (“suitable, fitting, nice”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ḱ- (“to fasten, place”). Cognate with Scots fayr, fare (“fair”), Danish feir, faver, fager (“fair, pretty”), Norwegian fager (“fair, pretty”), Swedish fager (“fair, pretty”), Icelandic fagur (“beautiful, fair”), Umbrian pacer (“gracious, merciful, kind”), Slovak pekný (“good-looking, handsome, nice”). See also peace.

Forms

fairer fairest

Derived

a fair bit a fair booty makes many a thief a fair few all's fair in love and war by fair means or foul culture-fair everything is fair in love and war faint heart never won fair lady fair and square fair as the day fair ball Fairbank Fairbanks fair bet fair-built fair cake-cutting fair catch fair coin fair comment fair cop fair copy fair crack of the whip fair dealing fair dinks

Adverb

  1. Clearly, openly, frankly, civilly, honestly, favorably, auspiciously, agreeably.
  2. Almost; to a great extent but not literally.
    • "I'm fair moidered to know what to do wid him," she confessed to the rosy-cheeked Bridget one day. - 1913, James Johnston Abraham, The Night Nurse:
    • "I just want to get me blasted boots off and soak me poor feet, they're fair killing me, what with chilblains and corns, me toes are fair screaming." - 2011 June 1, Dorothy Mitchell, Hollybeck, Chipmunkapublishing ltd,...
    • "We were at Egyptian Hall last night and the poor lady was overwhelmed with messages - they fair exhausted her." - 2011 September 5, Mary Hooper, Velvet, A&C Black, →ISBN, page 67:

Forms

more fair fairer most fair fairest

Derived

bid fair fair and square

Noun Entry 3

  1. Something which is fair (in various senses of the adjective).
    • When will we learn to distinguish between the fair and the foul?
  2. A woman, a member of the ‘fair sex’; also as a collective singular, women.
    • Love and Hymen, hand in hand, Come, restore the nuptial band! And sincere delights prepare To crown the hero and the fair. - 1744, Georg Friedrich Händel, Hercules, act 2, scene 8:
    • Here Jones, having ordered a servant to show a room above stairs, was ascending, when the dishevelled fair, hastily following, was laid hold on by the master of the house, who cried, “Heyday, where is that beggar wench...
    • If single, probably his plighted Fair Has in his absence wedded some rich miser […]. - 1821 August 8, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, Cantos III, IV, and V, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, canto III, stanza 24:
  3. Fairness, beauty.
    • My decayed fair - c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount,...
  4. A fair woman; a sweetheart.
    • I have found out a gift for my fair. - 1743, William Shenstone, A Pastoral Ballad:
  5. Good fortune; good luck.
    • Now, fair befall thee, good Petruchio! - c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...

Forms

fair

Noun Entry 4

  1. A community gathering to celebrate and exhibit local achievements.
  2. An event for public entertainment and trade, a market.
    • The turmoil went on—no rest, no peace. […] It was nearly eleven o'clock now, and he strolled out again. In the little fair created by the costers' barrows the evening only seemed beginning; and the naphtha flares made...
  3. An event for professionals in a trade to learn of new products and do business, a trade fair.
  4. A travelling amusement park (called a funfair in British English and a (travelling) carnival in US English).

Origin

From Middle English feyre, from Old French foire, from Latin fēriae.

Forms

fairs

Derived

a day after the fair book fair boot fair career fair careers fair cattle fair county fair fairdom fairgoer fairgoing fairground fairlike fairling fairtime frost fair funfair geography fair horn fair horse fair job fair Mayfair Ren fair Renaissance fair resource fair

Verb

  1. To smoothen or even a surface (especially a connection or junction on a surface).
  2. To bring into perfect alignment (especially about rivet holes when connecting structural members).
  3. To make an animation smooth, removing any jerkiness.
    • Since the sequence of data contain sampling noises, the captured motion is not smooth and wiggles along the moving path. There are well-known fairing algorithms in Euclidean space based on difference geometry. - 1996,...
  4. To construct or design with the aim of producing a smooth outline or reducing air drag or water resistance.
    • Two forward cars were provided with the model. One of these (shown detached in Fig. 1) was faired at its after end, with a view to possible reduction of head resistance, and to induce a better flow of air to the...
  5. To make fair or beautiful.
    • Fairing the foul with art’s false borrow’d face - 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 127”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:
  6. To become fair (favorable, not stormy).
    • [The] weather faired, and toward midday we were again facing the fringe of breakers from the cliffs. - 1891, Percival Lowell, Noto: An Unexplored Corner of Japan, IndyPublish.com, page 211:
    • ... weather "faired off" next morning, and we were not a bit sorry to mark time for a couple of days while the water went down. - 1929, James Frank Dobie, A Vaquero of the Brush Country, page 88:
    • ... weather faired up but there was no thought of delay; it was time for Texas to move forward and form a new, independent government. In an effort to combat the frigid conditions, the delegates nailed thin pieces of...

Forms

fairs fairing faired

Synonyms

to streamline

Derived

fair off fair up fairing