a. and adv.
A. adj. Honest, just, straightforward. B. adv. In a just or straightforward manner, honestly; with set purpose, determinedly. Also with ellipsis of ‘acting’ or the like = fair dealing.
1604. Friar Bacon’s Prophesie, 123, in Hazl., E. P. P., IV. 284.
| While faire, and square, and pitch, and pay, | |
| The gamestr calls fooles holy-day. |
1649. Cromwell, Lett., cxlvi. (Carlyle). There will clearly be no living for the Portugal unless he … do that which is fair and square.
1673. Wycherley, Gentl. Dancing-Master, Epil.
| For you are fair and square in all your dealings, | |
| You never cheat your doxies with gilt shillings. |
1711. Arbuthnot, John Bull, IV. ii. 7. We’ll settle it between Ourselves: Fair and Square.
1887. G. K. Sims, Mary Jane’s Mem., 252. We’re lovers all fair and square and above board.
1890. F. R. Stockton, The ‘Merry Chanter,’ in Century Magazine, Feb., 543/1. When a man sits down, fair and square, to tell a story, it happens time and again that the story don’t step up to the mark as lively as it ought to.
Hence Fairly and squarely adv.
1821. A Mackenrot, in Morning Post, 23 Nov., 2/4. The rigours of my detention ... debar me from fairly and squarely realizing a competency.
1890. W. A. Wallace, Only a Sister, 338. I think I can fight my own battles fairly and squarely.
