fair
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /fɛə/
ipa: /fɛː/
ipa: /fɛɚ/
ipa: /feː/
note: without the cheer–chair merger
ipa: /feə/
note: New Zealand, cheer–chair merger
ipa: /fiə/
ipa: /feɹ/
note: Lancashire, fair–fur merger
ipa: /fɜː(ɹ)/
homophone: fare
homophone: fear (cheer–chair merger)
homophone: fir (fair–fur merger)
homophone: fur (fair–fur merger)
rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)
Forms: form: fairs
form: fairing
form: faired
form: faired
Etymology: 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.
Senses: glosses: To smoothen or even a surface (especially a connection or junction on a surface).
glosses: To bring into perfect alignment (especially about rivet holes when connecting structural members).
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1996, Computer Animation '96: June 3-4, 1996, Geneva, Switzerland, page 136:
topics: art
arts
glosses: To make an animation smooth, removing any jerkiness.
examples: text: 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 propeller.
ref: 1920, Technical Report of the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, page 206:
glosses: To construct or design with the aim of producing a smooth outline or reducing air drag or water resistance.
examples: text: Fairing the foul with art’s false borrow’d face
ref: 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:
glosses: To make fair or beautiful.
examples: text: [The] weather faired, and toward midday we were again facing the fringe of breakers from the cliffs.
ref: 1891, Percival Lowell, Noto: An Unexplored Corner of Japan, IndyPublish.com, page 211:
glosses: To become fair (favorable, not stormy).
raw_tags: of weather
glosses: 1929, James Frank Dobie, A Vaquero of the Brush Country, page 88
glosses: 1929, James Frank Dobie, A Vaquero of the Brush Country, page 88:
... 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.
... 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.
glosses: 1992 05, Wallace O. Chariton, Charlie Eckhardt, Kevin Young, Unsolved Texas Mysteries, Taylor Trade Publications, →ISBN, page 205
glosses: 1992 05, Wallace O. Chariton, Charlie Eckhardt, Kevin Young, Unsolved Texas Mysteries, Taylor Trade Publications, →ISBN, page 205:
... 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 cloth over the[…]
... 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 cloth over the[…]
glosses: For more quotations using this term, see Citations:fair.
Synonyms: sense: to reduce air drag or water resistance
word: to streamline
Derived terms: fair off
fair up
fairing