fair1
/fɛː
/adjective
1Treating people equally without favouritism or discrimination: the group has achieved fair and equal representation for all its members a fairer distribution of wealth...
- It is impossible, with the best of wills to conduct free and fair elections under occupation with a war of attrition taking place between rebels and occupiers.
- Everyone has the means to gain knowledge of the law, which in turn makes legal systems more fair.
- They will give the judge a scrupulously fair trial.
Synonyms
just, equitable, fair-minded, open-minded, honest, upright, honourable, trustworthy;
impartial, unbiased, unprejudiced, non-partisan, non-discriminatory, anti-discrimination, objective, neutral, even-handed, dispassionate, disinterested, detached;
above board, lawful, legal, legitimate, proper, good
informal legit, kosher, pukka, on the level, square
North American informal on the up and up
1.1Just or appropriate in the circumstances: to be fair, this subject poses special problems it’s not fair to take it out on her...
- To be fair, Stork's reasoning has a certain justification.
- To be fair, the reason for the outage is likely to have been something beyond their control.
- I have generally found the vast majority to be fair and reasonable, and far from hostile.
1.2 archaic (Of a means or procedure) not violent: try first by fair means
2(Of hair or complexion) light; blonde: a pretty girl with long fair hair...
- More procedures may be required for advanced baldness or for individuals with very dark hair and fair complexion.
- The suspect is said to be in his 50s, has a light complexion and fair hair and weighs about 185 pounds.
- She was pretty, with blonde hair and fair skin, but her eyes seemed distant, if worried.
Synonyms
blond(e), yellow, yellowish, golden, flaxen, light, light brown, light-coloured, strawberry blonde, tow-coloured, platinum, ash blonde, bleached, bleached-blonde, sun-bleached, peroxide, bottle-blonde;
fair-haired, light-haired, golden-haired, flaxen-haired, tow-headed
pale, light, light-coloured, white, cream-coloured, creamy, peaches and cream;
light-skinned, fair-skinned
2.1(Of a person) having a light complexion or hair: he’s very fair with blue eyes...
- He was a skinny, fair boy with hair as light as sunshine and eyes as blue as the sky itself.
- She was fair, had long hair and had all the makings of a performer.
- Among them was a young princess, Lavena, the fair daughter of King Edward Longshanks.
3Considerable though not outstanding in size or amount: he did a fair bit of coaching...
- He is giving the matter a fair amount of considerable and is at that ‘in between’ situation at the moment.
- I did it very quickly, though I'd given a fair amount of consideration to each award in the recent weeks.
- Tracking down other dead notables often took a fair amount of detective work.
Synonyms
reasonable, passable, tolerable, satisfactory, acceptable, respectable, decent, all right, good enough, goodish, pretty good, not bad, moderate, average, middling, ample, adequate, sufficient
informal OK, okay, so-so, fair-to-middling
3.1Moderately good: he believes he has a fair chance of success...
- That means the rich don't get obscenely wealthy and the poor have a fair chance of good health, reasonable housing and a decent education.
- There's a fair chance they will have been air-freighted in from Africa or South America, at an unsustainable cost to the environment.
- But since he's a very healthy man and is very young, the chances are fair to good, I would say.
3.2Australian /NZ informal Complete; utter: this cow is a fair swine...
- The fair fool Noel has taken a week-long fancy to me, and I am making an age-long fool of him.
4(Of weather) fine and dry: a fair autumn day...
- You can forget all the cliches about fair weather and sunny days ahead for the founders of Intrallect.
- Perhaps it's the fair weather and calm conditions which had undermined the Scottish contingent's tilt at the title.
- If the weather is fair, she sits outside, often with her legs dangling over the precipice, the spyglass propped between her knees.
Synonyms
fine, dry, bright, clear, sunny, sunshiny, sunlit, cloudless, without a cloud in the sky;
warm, balmy, summery, clement, benign, agreeable, pleasant, good
4.1(Of the wind) favourable: they set sail with a fair wind...
- Such a fresh start might just be the fair wind and favourable sea for which I seem to be waiting.
- The fair wind shows the watchmen on the walls a black fleet coming up the river.
- May a fair wind ever find you and ease the burdens of your day.
Synonyms
favourable, advantageous, helpful, benign, beneficial;
opportune, timely;
on one's side, in one's favour
5 archaic Beautiful: the fairest of her daughters...
- It gave a beautiful song in its fair voice, but in the middle of its song, it suddenly stopped.
- Tall, beautiful, fair, his appearance was greeted with a low hum of admiration and anxiety.
- Elves were once known, even by humans, to be a fair and beautiful race of species.
5.1(Of words) specious despite being initially attractive: the Sophists have plenty of brave words and fair devices...
- After a month of fair words Artois came away in April 1793 with a jewelled sword inscribed With God, for the King but no more tangible support.
- Titania was stunned by the fair words that graced the paper, but she couldn't for the life of her figure out who wrote it.
adverb
1Without cheating or trying to achieve unjust advantage: no one could say he played fair...
- I hate to put it that way, but in my book, you ought to go out there to play to win, but you ought to play fair, you have to play by the rules, and these are things you should learn as a kid.
- With his trusty horse Trigger, Rogers played the straight-shooting good guy who always fought fair - instead of killing the bad guys, he would shoot the gun out of their hands - and always lived to sing about it.
- With his trusty horse Trigger, Rogers played the straight-shooting good guy who always fought fair - instead of killing the bad guys, he would shoot the gun out of their hands - and always lived to sing about it.
2 [as submodifier] dialect To a high degree: she’ll be fair delighted to see you...
- I'm fair tuckered out with the excitement of it all.
- As you may imagine she was fair delighted, and thought how pleased the King would be when he came home and found that his dearest wish had been fulfilled.
noun archaic
A beautiful woman: pursuing his fair in a solitary street
verb [no object] dialect
(Of the weather) become fine: looks like it’s fairing off some...
- John Bowes, Mayor of Kirkbymoorside, said: ‘The weather faired up and the parade and service were both excellent.’
- The weather faired, and our general caused our great pinnace to be made ready, and to row along the coast,
- Highland Council engineers responded to the disaster with alacrity and, as soon as the weather faired, had a team of divers on the scene to check that nothing dangerous to shipping lay beneath the water.
Phrases
all's fair in love and war
by fair means or foul
fair and square
fair comment
a fair cow
a fair deal
fair dinkum
fair dos
fair enough
fair go
fair name
the fair (or fairer) sex
fair's fair
for fair
in a fair way to do something
it's a fair cop
no fair
be set fair
Derivatives
fairish
/ adjective ...- A fairish number of people have written or commented on this post to the effect that it's not true that the association is making money unfairly off the backs of young athletes; they get a very valuable education out of the thing.
- I'm an MBA with a fairish background in the subject.
- To his call of ‘Kharkov! ‘, on the other hand, a fairish, goodlooking man responded instead of the one he had meant.’
Origin
Old English fæger 'pleasing, attractive', of Germanic origin; related to Old High German fagar.
The word fair is recorded from Old English in the sense ‘pleasing, attractive’. In early uses its opposite is often given as foul, as in the phrase by fair means or foul. This opposition remains in the phrases fair play and foul play, both of which first appeared in the late 16th century. The sense blonde developed in the mid 16th century from the sense attractive. Fair applied to handwriting to mean ‘neat, legible’ dates from the late 17th century. From this we get fair copy, the final corrected copy of a document. People have been saying all's fair in love and war to justify what they are doing since the early 17th century. The fair (or fairer) sex, a term for women, is recorded from the 17th century.
The kind of fair with stalls and amusements is a completely different word. It comes via Old French from Latin feria ‘holy day’, as fairs were often held on religious holidays. See also copper, dinkum
Rhymes
fair2
/fɛː/noun
1A gathering of stalls and amusements for public entertainment: I won a goldfish at the fair...
- The streets and bars were packed as visitors wandered amongst the stalls, fairs and entertainers on the streets of Killorglin.
- Organisers of fêtes, horse fairs and similar public functions sometimes set up temporary quoits pitches in this way for decades and such games are often referred to as Sward Quoits.
- In villages, festivals and fairs are occasions for entertainment and relaxation.
Synonyms
fete, gala, festival, carnival, funfair
2A periodic gathering for the sale of goods.That said, there are quicker ways to enter the collectable toy market, namely through auctions, toy fairs and car-boot sales....
- Personal snapshots from abandoned family albums turn up in all kinds of places, ‘from postcard fairs, to jumble sales, and dingy halls beside arterial roads,’ as he puts it.
- The business is so well-known now in Christchurch that the supply of books brought in keeps him very busy, without his going to seek them at fairs or garage sales.
Synonyms
market, bazaar, mart, exchange, sale;
open-air market, indoor market, flea market
archaic emporium
2.1An exhibition to promote particular products: the European Fine Art Fair...
- Implement manufacturers, grocers, lawyers, and railroad executives all had a stake in the health of the rural economy and worked tirelessly to promote fairs.
- Local merchants assisted in promoting the fashion fair in their stores, providing clothing for the models, and door prizes.
- The models cost a tidy packet but the organisation finds them easy to display at trade fairs and expos, here and overseas.
Synonyms
exhibition, display, show, showing, presentation, demonstration, exposition, spectacle, extravaganza;
North American exhibit
informal expo, demo
2.2North American An annual competitive exhibition of livestock, agricultural products, etc., held by a town, county, or state.Why, I remember when my own won the pig competition in the county fair, it made my heart bleat with pride and joy....
- People paid me big bucks to come and train their kids how to properly show livestock at fairs and competitions.
- It's the Rex breed of rabbit that I drool over every September, in the Small Animal Barn of our county fair.
Origin
Middle English (in the sense 'periodic gathering for the sale of goods'): from Old French feire, from late Latin feria, singular of Latin feriae 'holy days' (on which such fairs were often held).
fair3
/fɛː/verb [with object] (usually as adjective faired)
Streamline (a vehicle, boat, or aircraft) by adding fairings: it is fully faired and race ready...
- The hull is then faired and painted in the traditional black for the Galway hookers.
- Torpedo tubes are faired into either side of the bow, complete with live torpedoes.
Origin
Old English in the senses 'beautify' and 'appear or become clean'. The current sense dates from the mid 19th century.