fair

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“
It seems to me a thousand years now till I get out of the piazza, for a fair is a dull, not to say a wicked thing, when one has no more goods to sell Tito made a hasty sign of assent and adieu, and moving away from the pillar, again found himself pushed towards the middle of the piazza and back again, without the power of determining his own course.

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Definitions (95)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (29)

  1. adjective Of pleasing appearance, especially because of a pure or fresh quality; comely.
  2. adjective Light in color, especially blond: fair hair.
  3. adjective Of light complexion: fair skin.
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Examples (29)

  • "This fair is a great opportunity for people to get information about sleep problems, see our sleep center, and find out how to have a more restful night." —  KKTV - HomePage - Headlines
  • For other children, such as Hannah Miles, 11, of Boxford, Mass. (pop. 7,921), the fair is a chance to show off their ducks, chickens, goats and other farm animals. —  American Profile
  • "In the beginning, the fair was an educational tool for local farmers to exchange ideas," says O'Brien, 51, who first attended the fair as a little boy. —  American Profile
  • Higgs said that the fair is also where many non-profit organizations are able to make money by providing everything from snacks to full dinners. —  The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal:Today's Headlines
  • While neighbors and visitors to the fair will be affected - and all are invited to give input at a community forum from 4 to 7 Monday night at the Baja Blues restaurant on the fairgrounds - it could be other fairs that see the biggest impact. —  The Orange County Register - Homepage
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

Used in the same contextWord Family

fair:   fairer ·  fairest ·  fairs
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (7)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English, from Old English fæger, lovely, pleasant.
  2. Middle English faire, from Old French feire, from Late Latin fēria, sing. of Latin fēriae, holidays; see dhēs- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (5)

  1. from Middle English fair, fayr, faier, fayer, feir, fager, etc., from Anglo-Saxon fæger, beautiful, pleasing, pleasant, = Old Saxon fagar = Old High German fagar = Icelandic fagr = Swedish fager = Danish feir (obsolete), fager = Gothic (Moesogothic) fagrs, fit, adapted; prob. ult. connected with fay, q. v.
  2. from Middle English faire, fayre, feire, from Anglo-Saxon fægere, fægre, beautifully, pleasantly, from fæger, fair: see fair, a.
  3. from Middle English fayren, make beautiful, intransitive become beautiful, from Anglo-Saxon fægrian, become beautiful, āfægrian, make beautiful, from fæger, beautiful.
  4. from Middle English feire, feyre, from Anglo-French feire, Old French feire, foire, French foire = Provencal fieyra, feira, fiera = Spanish feria = Portuguese feira = Italian fiera, a fair, from Middle Latin feria, a fair, a holiday, L. usually plural feriæ (later D. G. ferien = Danish Swedish ferie, singular, ferier, plural, vacation, holidays), holidays, orig. *fesiæ, akin to festus, a feast: see festal, feast.
  5. from Old French faire, do (infinitive as a noun), from Latin facere, do: see affair and fact.
 

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/fɛr/
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