[fair] 
adjective, -er, -est, adverb, -er, -est, noun, verb | 1. | free from bias, dishonesty, or injustice: a fair decision; a fair judge. |
| 2. | legitimately sought, pursued, done, given, etc.; proper under the rules: a fair fight. |
| 3. | moderately large; ample: a fair income. |
| 4. | neither excellent nor poor; moderately or tolerably good: fair health. |
| 5. | marked by favoring conditions; likely; promising: in a fair way to succeed. |
| 6. | Meteorology.
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| 7. | Nautical. (of a wind or tide) tending to aid the progress of a vessel. |
| 8. | unobstructed; not blocked up: The way was fair for our advance. |
| 9. | without irregularity or unevenness: a fair surface. |
| 10. | free from blemish, imperfection, or anything that impairs the appearance, quality, or character: Her fair reputation was ruined by gossip. |
| 11. | easy to read; clear: fair handwriting. |
| 12. | of a light hue; not dark: fair skin. |
| 13. | pleasing in appearance; attractive: a fair young maiden. |
| 14. | seemingly good or sincere but not really so: The suitor beguiled his mistress with fair speeches. |
| 15. | courteous; civil: fair words. |
| 16. | Medicine/Medical. (of a patient's condition) having stable and normal vital signs and other favorable indicators, as appetite and mobility, but being in some discomfort and having the possibility of a worsening state. |
| 17. | Dialect. scarcely; barely: It was just fair daylight when we started working. |
| 18. | in a fair manner: He doesn't play fair. |
| 19. | straight; directly, as in aiming or hitting: He threw the ball fair to the goal. |
| 20. | favorably; auspiciously. |
| 21. | British, Australian. entirely; completely; quite: It happened so quickly that it fair took my breath away. |
| 22. | Archaic. something that is fair. |
| 23. | Archaic.
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| 24. | to make the connection or junction of (surfaces) smooth and even. |
| 25. | Shipbuilding.
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| 26. | to bring (rivet holes in connecting structural members) into perfect alignment. |
| 27. | Obsolete. to make fair. |
| 28. | fair off or up, South Midland and Southern U.S. (of the weather) to clear: It's supposed to fair off toward evening. |
| 29. | bid fair, to seem likely: This entry bids fair to win first prize. |
| 30. | fair and square,
|
| 31. | fair to middling, Informal. only tolerably good; so-so. |
| fair 1 (fâr) adj. fair·er, fair·est
To join (pieces) so as to be smooth, even, or regular: faired the aircraft's wing into the fuselage. n.
fair off/up Chiefly Southern U.S. To become clear. Used of weather. Idiom(s): fair and squareJust and honest. Idiom(s): for fairTo the greatest or fullest extent possible: Our team was beaten for fair in that tournament. Idiom(s): no fairSomething contrary to the rules: That was no fair. [Middle English, from Old English fæger, lovely, pleasant.] fair'ness n. Synonyms: These adjectives mean free from favoritism, self-interest, or preference in judgment. Fair is the most general: a fair referee; a fair deal. American folk speech puts Standard English to shame in its wealth of words for describing weather conditions. When the weather goes from fair to cloudy, New Englanders say that it's "breedin' up a storm" (Maine informant in the Linguistic Atlas of New England). If the weather is clear, however, a New Englander might call it open. Southern fair off and fair up, meaning "to become clear," were originally Northeastern terms and were brought to the South as settlement expanded southward and westward. They are now "regionalized to the South," according to Craig M. Carver, author of American Regional Dialects. These phrases may have prompted the coining of milding and milding down, noted respectively in Texas and Virginia by the Dictionary of American Regional English. |
