The Collaborative International Dictionary
Fair-weather \Fair"-weath`er\, a.
Made or done in pleasant weather, or in circumstances involving but little exposure or sacrifice; as, a fair-weather voyage.
--Pope.-
Appearing only when times or circumstances are prosperous; as, a fair-weather friend.
Fair-weather sailor, a make-believe or inexperienced sailor; -- the nautical equivalent of carpet knight.
Wiktionary
a. 1 suitable for use only during fair weather 2 (context of friends, etc. English) dependable only in the absence of trouble.
Usage examples of "fair-weather".
It is difficult in English, with its relatively meager stock of rhymes and its weight of consonants, to render completely the disarming grace of this reproach to fair-weather friends, the suave cadence, the delicate strophic scheme that embodies his appeal to the countess and, through her, to his familiars in hall, in tournament and war.
The fair-weather hunters wanted to trot around in their lovely ratcatcher kits, so the sunshine appealed to them.
Not your ordinary prevaricator, who skirts along the coast of truth, keeping ever within sight of the headlands and promontories of probability-whose excursions are limited to short, fair-weather reaches into the ocean of imagination, and who paddles for port as if the devil were after him whenever a capful of wind threatens a storm of exposure.
If you wish to come with me, I can use a partner, but I want no fair-weather friend.
He had managed to fill four whole days taking these pictures, and the sun, which had been his enemy so long, had turned fair-weather friend and illuminated the dark side with slanting rays which brought out every detail in sharp contrast to its own shadow.
When she lived in New York, she thought that life in the Hamptons, which she called “the country,” was suitable only for fair-weather weekends.
In spite of the Surprise's splendid display of light fair-weather canvas - studdingsails aloft and alow, royals and even skysails and skyscrapers - she rarely logged more than a hundred miles between one observation and the next.