a. [f. FAR adv. + SIGHT + -ED2.] Furnished with a capacity for distant vision.
1. fig. Looking far before one; forecasting, shrewd, prudent.
1641. Milton, Ch. Govt., Wks. 1738, I. 75. The fair and far-sighted eyes of his natural discerning.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1852), II. 262. To man she [Nature] has given understanding, far-sighted faculty, looking forward perpetually upon good to come, and finding present solace in the prospect.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xv. (1856), 116. This far-sighted commander had killed and salted down so many of these birds as to augment his resources by nearly a two years’ supply of food.
1865. Tylor, Early Hist. Man., xi. 303. A few far-sighted thinkers.
2. lit. Able to see objects at a distance more clearly than those near at hand.
1878. Encycl. Brit., VIII. 820/1. This kind of eye is called hypermetropic, or far-sighted.
Hence Far-sightedly adv., in a far-sighted manner. Far-sightedness, the state of beiny far-sighted. lit. and fig.
1860. Mill, Repr. Govt. (1861), 138. It is a melancholy truth, that if any measure were proposed, on any subject, truly, largely, and far-sightedly conservative, even if Liberals were willing to vote for it, the great bulk of the Conservative party would rush blindly in and prevent it from being carried.
1884. Times (weekly ed.), 20 June, 5. The mother country must show herself farsightedly liberal.
1824–9. Landor, Imag. Conv., Wks. 1846, II. 243/2. Verily our Prophet did well and with farsightedness, in forbidding the human form and features to be graven or depicted, if such be human.
1881. Le Conte, Monoc. Vision, 48. This defect is often called … far-sightedness.
