a. and adv. Also 4 ferþest, ferdest, 5–7 fardest. [var. of FURTHEST; used as superlative of FAR: see FARTHER.]

1

  A.  adj.

2

  1.  Most distant or remote. Also with off.

3

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. V. 239. Þe ferthest ende of norfolke.

4

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., IV. i. (1495), 78. The fyre that is ferdest from the mydle of the erthe.

5

1474.  Caxton, Chesse, 156. The fardest ligne of theschequer.

6

1549.  Latimer, 4th Serm. bef. Edw. VI. (Arb.), 121. He was a manne the fardest frome the feare of God that euer I knewe.

7

1597.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. xli. (1611), 266. Those calamities may be nearest at hand, readiest to break in suddenly upon us, which we in regard of times or circumstances, may imagine to be fardest off.

8

1622.  Malynes, Anc. Law-Merch., 222. The Prouerbe is true, That he who is farthest from his goods, is neerest to his losse.

9

1671.  Milton, P. R., III. 397.

        My time, I told thee (and that time for thee
Were better farthest off), is not yet come.

10

1726.  trans. Gregory’s Astron., I. 11. If it be most Direct and farthest off the Earth.

11

1777.  Sir W. Jones, Poems & Ess., 179. The midland provinces of Persia abound in fruits and flowers of almost every kind, and, with proper culture, might be made the garden of Asia: they are not watered, indeed, by any considerable river, since the Tigris and Euphrates, the Cyrus and Araxes, the Oxus, and the five branches of the Indus, are at the farthest limits of the kingdom; but the natives, who have a turn for agriculture, supply that defect by artificial canals.

12

1823.  H. J. Brooke, Introd. Crystallogr., 31. With the edge at which those planes meet, the farthest from you.

13

  2.  Extending to the greatest distance, longest.

14

1633.  T. James, Voy., 109–10. To Iapan, China, and the Northerne parts of Asia, it may be the neerer cut: but in Nauigation, the farthest way about, is well knowne, in fewer dayes to be performed, yea with lesser paines, and more safety of Ship and goods.

15

1878.  Stevenson, Inland Voy., 200. It was the farthest piece of travel accomplished. Indeed, it lies so far from beaten paths of language, that I despair of getting the reader into sympathy with the smiling, complacent idiocy of my condition.

16

  3.  absol. At (the) farthest: a. of space: At the greatest distance. b. of future time: At latest. c. of degree: At the outside.

17

1596.  Shaks., Merch. V., II. ii. 122. Let it be so hasted that supper be readie at the farthest by fiue of the clocke.

18

1661.  Cowley, Prop. Adv. Exp. Philos. Within one, two or (at farthest) three miles of London.

19

1670.  Narborough, Jrnl., in Acc. Sev. Late Voy., I. (1711), 33. When I was at the farthest, and on a Hill, I could not see any sign of People, or Woods, but still Hills and Valleys as far as we could descry.

20

1765.  Chesterf., Lett., cccli. (1774), IV. 221. You may depend upon what I promised you, before Midsummer next, at farthest.

21

  B.  adv. To or at the greatest distance. Also with off.

22

1598.  Yong, Diana, 174. Sometimes striuing who could smite a stone fardest with them.

23

1607.  Tourneur, Revenger’s Trag., V. iii.

            Here’s the comfort, my Lord. Many times
When it seemes most, it threatens farthest off.

24

1667.  Milton, P. L., I. 247.

                  Fardest from him is best
Whom reason hath equald.

25

  b.  Comb. forming the superlatives of compounds of FAR a.

26

1580.  Sidney, Arcadia (1622), 282. In the farthest-fet construction.

27

1879.  E. Arnold, Lt. Asia, 10.

        King! Viswamitra is the wisest one,
The farthest-seen in Scriptures, and the best
In learning and the manual arts, and all.

28