far

adj, adv, verb and 1 more — 12 senses

far

adj

UK /fɑː/ · CA, US /fɑɹ/

Etymology Inherited from Middle English ferre, fer, Old English feor, feorr, from Proto-Germanic *ferrai

7 senses
  1. 1Distant; remote in space.
  2. 2Remote in time.
  3. 3Long.
  4. 4More remote of two.
  5. 5Extreme, as measured from some central or neutral position.
  6. 6Extreme, as a difference in nature or quality.
  7. 7Outside the currently selected segment in a segmented…
1

Distant; remote in space.

  • He went to a far land.
  • And they went to Ioshua vnto the campe at Gilgal, and said vnto him, and to the men of Israel, Wee be come from a farre countrey: Now therefore make ye a league with vs.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Joshua 9:6:
1 more example
  • Tsiolkas's Europe, as voraciously predatory as his own undead protagonist, is a far cry from the fount of idealistic humanism dreamed up by generations of both pre- and post-Enlightenment politicians and philosophers, a Europe defined by its durable capacity for civility in an otherwise barbarous world.2009, Graham Huggan, Ian Law, Racism Postcolonialism Europe, page 1:
2

Remote in time.

  • the far far future
3

Long.

  • I have such a long way to go but yet I have come such a far piece already2011, Peggy Woods, Ramblings from a Soul, page 42:
4

More remote of two.

  • At the far end of the houses the head gardener stood waiting for his mistress, and he gave her strips of bass to tie up her nosegay. This she did slowly and laboriously, with knuckly old fingers that shook.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIX, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
  • See those two mountains? The ogre lives on the far one.
1 more example
  • He moved to the far end of the state. She remained at this end.
5

Extreme, as measured from some central or neutral position.

  • They are on the far right on this issue.
  • He was withdrawn to such a far degree that it required of Piers and Jude a good deal of occasional conferencing between the two of them, in private.2010, William Alexander Patterson, 4th, The City Is served Bartholomew! to the American Prison!, page 118:
6

Extreme, as a difference in nature or quality.

  • As sensible maketh a man differ from a stone, in a far difference; for other Species, as Beasts, have the same difference, but reasonable is the nearest, whereby he differeth from a stone, beasts, and all other things.1657, Henry Ainsworth, Zachary Coke, The Art of Logick., page 26:
  • Is there not a far difference between asking it up and urging it, Mr. Secretary?1979, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Armed Services, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations, Military situation in the Far East - Volume 3, page 1737:
2 more examples
  • The pressbook identifies the film as a 'picturization of Jane Austen's widely read novel' and starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier (based on the theatrical adaptation by Helen Jerome), it is a far remove from adaptations that follow.2010, Deborah Cartmell, Screen Adaptations: Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, page 78:
  • This may not be at such a far remove from the endlessly recursive textual inventions of Kafka, Beckett, and Bernhard as it may seem.2014, Henry Sussman, Playful Intelligence: Digitizing Tradition, page 124:
7

Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Programming, Sciences Outside the currently selected segment in a segmented memory architecture.

  • far heap; far memory; far pointer
Synonyms
distant
Antonyms
close, near
Derived terms
94 termsa bridge too far, afar, a far remove, as far as, as far as I can throw you, as far as I'm concerned, as far as one knows, as far as the eye can see, as far as the eye could see, by far, by far and away, cast one's net far and wide, far and away, far and wide, far away, faraway, far be it, Far Cotton, far cry, far-famed, far far away, far-feeling, farfetch, far fetched, far-fetched, far-field, far field, far-flung, Far Forest, far from, far from it, fargoing, far gone, far-left, far left, far-lefter, far leftist, far-leftist, farmost, farness, Far North, far-off, far off, far-out, far out, far point, far post, farreaching, far-reaching, far removed, far-right, far right, far-righter, far-rightist, far rightist, Far Sawrey, farsee, far-seeing, farseeing, farseer, farsight, far sight, far-sighted, farsighted, farspeak, farstretched, far turn, few and far between, go far, go so far as, go too far, how far, howsofar, if you go far enough left, you get your guns back, in so far as, overfar, over the hills and far away, so far, so far as, so far so good, take too far, the apple does not fall far from the stem, the apple does not fall far from the tree, the apple does not fall far from the trunk, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, the apple never falls far from the tree, the nut does not fall far from the tree, thus far, too far gone, trust someone as far as one can spit, trust someone as far as one could fling a bull by the tail, trust someone as far as one could spit, trust someone as far as one could throw them, Unincorporated Far West

far

adv

Etymology Inherited from Middle English ferre, fer, Old English feor, feorr, from Proto-Germanic *ferrai

1

To, from or over a great distance in space, time or other extent.

  • You have all come far and you will go further.
  • He built a time machine and travelled far into the future.
2 more examples
  • Over time, his views moved far away from mine.
  • You've gone far enough. Actually, a bit too far.
2

Very much; by a great amount.

  • He was far richer than we'd thought.
  • The expense far exceeds what I expected.
2 more examples
  • I saw a tiny figure far below me.
  • The Reds were on the back foot early on when a catalogue of defensive errors led to Ramires giving Chelsea the lead. Jay Spearing conceded possession in midfield and Ramires escaped Jose Enrique far too easily before scoring at the near post with a shot Reina should have saved.2012 May 5, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport:

far

verb

Etymology Inherited from Middle English ferre, fer, Old English feor, feorr, from Proto-Germanic *ferrai

1

Rare To send far away.

  • But I wish he'd been farred before he ever came near this house, with his “Please Betty” this, and “Please Betty” that, and drinking up our new milk as if he'd been a cat. I hate such beguiling ways.1864, Elizabeth Gaskell, Cousin Phillis:
  • […] so Joe come to me and he uz sore as a boil and said you goddam prevert, I don't want no twenny-two-year-old mechanic who still pulls his pood in the toilet, and farred me.1962, Thomas Berger, Reinhart in Love:

far

noun

Etymology From Latin far. Doublet of farro.

1

Emmer (a type of wheat), especially in the context of Roman use of it.

  • A cataplasm made from any meal is heating, whether it be of wheat, or of far, or barley, or bitter vetch, ...1756, Aurelius Cornelius Celsus, Medicine: In Eight Books, page 108:
  • Almost all the rustic writers agree in this, that far is most proper for wet clay land, and triticum for dry land. 'In wet red clays,' says Cato, 'sow far; and in dry, clean, and open lands, sow triticum.'1857, John Marius Wilson, The Rural Cyclopedia:
2 more examples
  • Our wedding-cake is the memorial of a practice, that bore a striking resemblance to, if it was not derived from, confarreatio, the form of marriage that had fallen into general disuse amongst the Romans in the time of Tiberius. Taking its name from the cake of far and mola salsa that was broken over the bride's head, confarreatio was attended with an incident that increases its resemblance to the way in which our ancestors used at their weddings objects symbolical of natural plentifulness.1872, John Cordy Jeaffreson, “Wedding-Cake”, in Brides and Bridals. […], volume I, London: Hurst and Blackett, […], →OCLC, pages 200–201:
  • The early Romans broke a cake of far and mola salsa (salted meal) over the bride's head, — a symbol of plentifulness, […]1919, Carl Holliday, Wedding Customs Then and Now, page 32:

far

noun
1

UK, Dialectal A litter of piglets; a farrow.

Related terms
far breton, far Breton

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.