Dictionary

fairing en · NOUN · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• /ˈfɛəɹɪŋ/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈfɛɹɪŋ/ (General-American)

Etymology

From fair (“community gathering, market”). In the sense of food, because cakes and sweets were sold at fairs.

Meanings

1. (archaic) A gift or other souvenir bought at a fair.
   • She told me she was on her way to the fair in Bolzano and assumed I was going there too. Should we meet there, I must buy her a fairing [translating Jahrmarkt]. 1962, JW Goethe, translated by WH Auden and Elizabeth Mayer, Italian Journey, Penguin, published 1970, page 28:
2. (archaic) A present, especially given by a lover.
3. (Ireland, Scotland, archaic) Something that is deserved; one's deserts.
4. A type of small gingerbread biscuit; a ginger nut.
   • […] the ground […] was already being occupied by the “cheap Jacks,” with their green-covered carts and marvellous assortment of wares; and the booths of more legitimate small traders, with their tempting arrays of fairings and eatables; and penny peep-shows and other shows, containing pink-eyed ladies, and dwarfs, and boa-constrictors, and wild Indians. 1857, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's School Days, Part I, Chapter 2:

Forms

Deriveds

get one's fairing · Cornish fairing

Descendants

féirín (gift box) · fferins (sweets, candy)

fairing en · NOUN · etymology 2

Pronunciation

• /ˈfɛəɹɪŋ/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈfɛɹɪŋ/ (General-American)

Etymology

From fair (“to smoothen or even a surface”).

Meanings

1. A covering on various parts of a vehicle, for example an aircraft, automobile, or motorcycle, that streamlines it (i.e., produces a smooth exterior and reduces drag).
   • The fairing over the driving motion of this engine, and of the 4-6-2s, was removed subsequently, to give greater accessibility to the working parts. 1950 October, H. C. Casserley, “Locomotive Cavalcade, 1920-1950—4”, in Railway Magazine, page 660:
   • To improve the appearance of the stepped roof a glass-fibre fairing, moulded to the corner radius, extends for the full length between the two cabs. 1960 February 14, “High-Voltage Electric Locomotive for British Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 123:

Forms

Translations (13)

fr carénage (aircraft fairing) · de Verkleidung (aircraft fairing) · es carenadura (act of adding fairings to a vehicle) · bg обтекател (aircraft fairing) · tr kaplama (aircraft fairing) · es carenaje (act of adding fairings to a vehicle) · pl owiewka (aircraft fairing) · fr fuselage (aircraft fairing) · es carenado (aircraft fairing) · ru обтека́тель (aircraft fairing) · it carenatura (aircraft fairing) · es carena (aircraft fairing) · de Schürze (aircraft fairing)

fairing en · VERB · etymology 2

Pronunciation

• /ˈfɛəɹɪŋ/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈfɛɹɪŋ/ (General-American)

Etymology

From fair (“to smoothen or even a surface”).

Meanings

1. (form-of, gerund, participle, present) present participle and gerund of fair
   form of fair