far-out, a.
[f. far adv. + out adv.]
a. Remote, distant.
| 1887 J. Service Life Dr. Duguid 84 A faur oot freen of John Paiks' father. 1888 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Robb. under Arms I. xvii. 232 These far-out back-of-beyond places. Ibid. III. xv. 215 The far-out squatters that were stocking up new country in Queensland. 1929 D. H. Lawrence Pansies 100 Yet even waste, grey foreshores, sand, and..far-out clay Are sea-bed still. |
b. Of jazz: of the latest or most progressive kind. More generally, avant-garde, far-fetched; excellent, splendid. orig. U.S.
| 1954 Time 8 Nov. 70 Jazz lingo becomes obsolescent almost as fast as it reaches the public ear... A daring performance was ‘hot’, then ‘cool’, and now is ‘far out’. 1956 M. Stearns Story of Jazz (1957) xviii. 232 There were too many choices in ‘far-out’ harmony. 1959 Listener 1 Oct. 542/3 Cute, gone, far-out little girls. 1960 Melody Maker 31 Dec. 6/3 Oliver Cool is the pseudonym of singer Larry Ellis, who found he won more success when he adopted the ‘far-out’ monniker. 1962 Listener 29 Nov. 911/2 In the spread of serialism, we are faced with another and greater neo-classical craze, the most far-out of all. 1963 K. Amis One Fat Englishman iii. 36 She was..several times more attractive than her with-it off-beat far-out co-religionist deserved. 1970 Sci. Jrnl. May 47/2 Talking with computers, so much a far-out idea when this journal discussed IBM's work on it four years ago, now seems quite straightforward. |