faired

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of fair.

   The engineers faired the fuselage to cut down on drag.

   Shipwrights faired the planks so the curve of the hull flowed without bumps.

   Note

   A workshop past tense: engineers, shipwrights and animators use it for surfaces, joints and motion made smooth, and for rivet holes brought into line. It nearly always takes an object, and as a participle it turns passive easily, as in the seams were faired. Only the weather use stands alone, when a sky faired and turned favorable. The older use meaning 'made beautiful' is obsolete. The participle also settles into the adjective for enclosed parts.

2. 2
   adjective

   Of a part or structure: enclosed within a fairing.

   Like the teardrop shell around a bike's wheel that keeps the wind from catching on sharp edges.

   The faired struts noticeably reduced drag on the early biplane.

   Modern motorcycles often have a faired front end for better aerodynamics.

   Similarstreamlined, shrouded, enclosed

   Oppositeunfaired, naked, exposed

   Note

   Here the smoothness comes from a shell rather than from reshaping. A faired part sits inside a fairing, just as a velomobile is a bicycle wrapped in one. Being enclosed is all or nothing, so the adjective has no comparative, and nothing is more faired than something else. It usually stands before its noun, as in faired struts or a faired bicycle.

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