From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishto be fairto be fairused when adding something after someone has been criticized, which helps to explain or excuse what they did SYN in fairness She should have phoned to tell us what her plans were although, to be fair, she’s been very busy. → fair
Examples from the Corpus
to be fair• This means not only that those procedures are seen and felt to be fair.• To be fair, art was only the start of my problems.• Now I want to be fair, even with the bankers, for they are pretty touchy now.• He's not playing very well but, to be fair, he did have a pretty serious injury.• To be fair, not all the credit for this belongs to Labour.• But, to be fair to myself, she could, at times, become a bona fide drone.• They should not try to be fair to other countries.• But at the same time, to be fair, we had a choice. 