Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To paint, as the cheeks: as, “the farded fop,”
  • noun Color; paint, as applied to the complexion.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete Paint used on the face.
  • transitive verb obsolete To paint; -- said esp. of one's face.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Colour or paint used on the face; makeup, war-paint.
  • verb transitive To paint, as the face or cheeks.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Middle French, from Old French fard ("make-up, cosmetics"), from farder ("to apply make-up, use cosmetics"), from Old Frankish *farwidōn ("to dye, colour"), from Proto-Germanic *farwiþōnan (“to colour”), from Proto-Germanic *farwō (“colour”), from Proto-Indo-European *perḱ- (“motley, coloured”). Cognate with Old High German farwjan ("to colour") (High German Farbe ("colour")), Middle Low German varwe ("colour") (Low German Farwe ("colour")), Latin pulcher ("beautiful"), Welsh erch ("dark brown").

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Examples

Comments

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  • Islamic term meaning religious duty.

    October 7, 2007

  • also, v. to paint the face with cosmetics, so as to hide blemishes.

    May 31, 2009

  • Who farded?

    May 29, 2016

  • (verb/noun) - (1) To paint the face. --Robert Nares' Glossary of the Works of English Authors, 1859 (2) To paint the face with fard, white paint; to hide defects and improve the complexion; 1400s-1600s. Figuratively, to embellish or gloss over anything. Paint, especially white paint, for the face. Zacharie Boyd's Zion's Flowers (c. 1620) wrote, "I have farded half my face with fard most rare." --Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1901

    January 27, 2018