far-off, a.
(ˈfɑːrˈɒf, -ɔː-)
[f. far adv. + off adv., formerly written as two words.]
1. Far distant, remote. a. In space. b. In time. c. In relationship.
| a. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. iv. i. 194 Like farre off mountaines turned into Clouds. 1632 Milton Penseroso 74, I hear the far-off Curfeu sound, Over some wide-water'd shore. 1794 Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho vii, The far-off low of cattle. 1816 J. Wilson City of Plague ii. i. 199 Our far-off friends. 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge II. xiv, The far-off places in which he had been wandering. 1855 Milman Lat. Chr. (1864) IX. xiv. viii. 280 Their humble posture of far off adoration. |
| b. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. i, Who shall..stretch a hand thro' time to catch The far-off interest of tears? 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 78 The far-off result of the working of many minds in many ages. 1877 A. B. Edwards Up Nile i. 18 Those far-off days of Cheops and Chephren. |
| c. 1828 Miss Mitford Village Ser. iii. (1863) 90, I..am but a far-off kinswoman. |
d. Other
fig. uses,
e.g. of thoughts, looks, etc.
| 1849 Hogg's Weekly Instructor III. 313/1 The far-off thoughts of earthly love and beauty. 1870 W. Morris Earthly Par. III. 462 Scarce happy 'neath his far-off moody gaze. 1876 Mr. Gray & his Neighbours II. 41 Alice Gray was very pale, and with that far-off look in her eyes, which those who are to die young have more than others. 1922 C. E. Montague Disenchantment i. 8 The far-off, longed-for ideal of smartness. 1948 L. MacNeice Holes in Sky 21 The Painter's little daughter, far-off-eyed. 1959 T. S. Eliot tr. St. J. Perse's Anabasis 37 My soul engaged in far-off matters. |
2. absol. in the far off: in the distance.
| 1866 C. M. Yonge Dove in Eagle's Nest I. xii. 230 There will be freedom in rushing at last into the great far-off! 1884 Sala Journ. due South i. xxv. (1887) 339 The eternal but subdued resonance of Niagara in the far-off. 1932 V. McNabb in God's Way of Mercy (1937) xxi. 186 Faith brings the far-off very near, and makes the very little large. |
Hence
far-offness, the state or fact of being far-off, distance.
| 1873 R. S. Candlish Serm. v. 93 My..helpless far-offness from God. 1877 Mallock New Republic iv. ii. II. 208 But ah! the weariness, the far-offness of it all. |