fair-weatheradj.
/ˈfɛːwɛðə/, U.S. /ˈfɛrˈˌwɛðər/ 1. Having or characterized by calm or good weather; relating to or produced by such conditions.
ΚΠ
1610 H. Broughton Iob xxxvii. 75 Cold from the fair-weather windes.
1694 T. Phillips Jrnl. Voy. in Churchill's Coll. Voy. (1732) VI. 177/2 My carpenters..clapt four good wooldings upon him [sc. a mast], which I was in hopes would sufficiently secure him, we every day approaching nearer a fair weather country.
1757 J. Lund Treat. Scurvy (ed. 2) ii. i. 73 In such fair-weather climates ships are sometimes becalmed for weeks together.
1775 Gentleman's Mag. Dec. 576/1 An unexpected drift of snow..hurried me swiftly back to a fair-weather country.
1805 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 95 182 It was then the fair weather season, or north-east monsoon.
1879 G. Meredith Egoist II. ii. 23 A fair weather sunset sky above the pecking sparrow.
1918 Monthly Weather Rev. (U.S.) 46 68/1 The nights of May 8–9 and May 9–10 were typical fair-weather nights.
1987 W. Hagelund Whalers no More viii. 121 The [whaling] station operated only during the fair weather months.
2008 Guardian 14 Aug. 41/3 Cumulus humilis is..often a fair-weather cloud that bubbles up from a hot ground on rising thermals of warm air.
2. Fit or suitable only for calm or good weather.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > fine weather > [adjective] > suitable (only) for fine weather
fair-weather1653
fine-weather1829
1653 T. Urquhart tr. F. Rabelais 1st Bk. Wks. xi. 57 They made him [sc. Gargantua] a faire weather whirljack, of the wings of the windmil of Myrebalais.
1779 Contin. Doctor Campbell's Lives Brit. Admirals IV. xxiv. 352 He [sc. Captain Cook] changed the fair-weather rigging of his ship.
1795 W. Beloe tr. Aulus Gellius Attic Nights II. x. xxv. 265 Long galliots, scullers, capulices, fair-weather ships.
1810 Naval Chron. 24 69 These fair-weather birds would never put to sea.
1855 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 650 The first gale would send the whole of this fairweather armament to the bottom of the Channel.
1883 Manch. Examiner 26 Nov. 5/3 They are all fair-weather craft.
1913 Mod. Painter Feb. 23/1 His coat..must wear well, too; no fair-weather suit will do; it must stand the rain and snow as well as the sunshine.
1992 B. Unsworth Sacred Hunger xxii. 176 Simmonds was shouting orders for the fairweather sails to be hoisted.
3. Dependable only when conditions or circumstances are favourable; unreliable in times of difficulty.Cf. fair-weather friend n. at Compounds.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > belief > uncertainty, doubt, hesitation > unreliability > [adjective] > of persons
slipperc1000
ficklea1275
untristya1387
flickering1430
untrusty1430
slidingc1435
unsurec1445
untraistc1485
unassure1531
slippery1555
untraisty1567
untrustful1569
unresponsable1619
uncanny1639
fair-weather1677
unresponsible1764
independable1802
unreliable1810
untrustworthy1846
undependable1860
incalculable1876
slithery1902
wonky1919
doubtful1925
the mind > will > decision > irresolution or vacillation > inconstancy > [adjective] > temporizing or trimming
time-serving1571
temporizing1600
fair-weathered1608
yea-and-nay1672
fair-weather1677
trimming1683
sunshine1742
1677 W. Wycherley Plain-dealer i. 3 Here's a finical Fellow Iack! What a brave fair weather Captain of a Ship he wou'd make!
1695 W. Congreve Love for Love iii. i. 44 What, do you mean that fair-Weather Spark that was here just now?
1748 T. Smollett Roderick Random I. iii. 16 That there Fair-weather Jack (pointing to the young 'squire).
1798 W. Coxe Mem. Sir R. Walpole I. xvi. 219 The duke of Grafton..was well characterised by his friend, Walpole, as a fair weather pilot, that did not know how to act, when the first storm arose.
1828 E. Irving Last Days 287 What a fair-weather service there is of God!
1873 R. Broughton Nancy II. 10 Am I to be only a fair-weather wife to you?
1920 G. A. Henty With Wolfe in Canada v. 94 A fair-weather sort of niceness.
1996 K. Burnett Friends for Life xii. 354 Many of this new intake were fair-weather supporters.
Compounds
fair-weather friend n. a friend during pleasant or prosperous times; esp. one who is friendly or dependable only when it is easy or convenient to be so; an unreliable friend; also in extended use.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > belief > uncertainty, doubt, hesitation > unreliability > [noun] > of persons > unreliable person
flippera1400
fair-weather friend1685
waffler1805
foul-weather friend1845
1685 W. Clark Grand Tryal ii. vi. 42 When the troubled Skye, Portends a Storm, and Clouds begin to reel, Then those Fair-weather-friends bid us farewel.
1730 A. Pope Let. 1 Oct. (1735) II. 236 My Fair-Weather-Friends of the Summer are going away for London.
1787 Familiar Ess. Interesting Subj. 79 Ethelinda still lives admired..though neglected and forgotten by the fair-weather friends who once flattered her in her life of grandeur.
1832 Chambers' Edinb. Jrnl. 18 Feb. 18/1 Rats are a sort of fair-weather friend in their way, always departing from a house when misfortune is about to befall it.
1896 Spectator 15 Aug. 217/2 She belongs to the sad company of ‘reduced gentlefolk,’ and finds how short are the memories of fair weather friends.
1922 C. J. Melrose Money & Credit ix. 187 A mixed currency..never was—it never could be—anything but a mere palliative—a ‘fair weather friend’.
1992 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 26 Apr. 27/3 Nick..takes revenge on fair-weather friends and becomes a genuine nice guy.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1610