fair
Forms
- Comparative
- fairer
- Superlative
- fairest
- Plural
- fair
- present (v1)
- fair
- past (v2)
- faired
- past participle (v3)
- faired
- present participle
- fairing
- 3rd person singular
- fairs
Definitions
1.Unblemished (figuratively or literally); clean and pure; innocent.
- 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.
2.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.
- 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.
3.Just.
- He must be given a fair trial.
4.Adequate, reasonable, or decent, but not excellent.
- Their performance has been only fair.
- The patient was in a fair condition after some treatment.
- The words of these songs were either without meaning, or derived from an idiom with which Watt, a very fair linguist, had no acquaintance.
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).
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 fair woman; a sweetheart.
- I have found out a gift for my fair.
Frequency
Overall
Common· #1242
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Uncommon
- General reading & writing
- Common
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
Etymology
From Middle English fayr, from Old English fæġer (“beautiful”), from Proto-West Germanic *fagr, from Proto-Germanic *fagraz (“appropriate, fitting, nice, suitable”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ḱ- (“to attach, join; agreement, settlement”).
Cognates