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An abrupt change in feeling, opinion, or action, proceeding from some whim or fancy; a freak; a notion. "Caprices of appetite." W. Irving.

Governed or characterized by caprice; apt to change suddenly; freakish; whimsical; changeable. "Capricious poet." Shak. "Capricious humor." Hugh Miller. A capricious partiality to the Romish practices. Hallam.

tural or affected conception; a witty thought or turn of expression; a fanciful device; a whim; a quip. On his way to the gibbet, a freak took him in the head to go off with a conceit. L'Estrange. Some to conceit alone their works confine, And glittering thoughts struck out at every line. Pope. Tasso is full of conceit…

Fancifully; whimsically.

Having an impaired intellect; whimsical; crazy. Pope.

A twist or turn of the mind; caprice; whim; crotchet; also, a fit of temper or passion. [Prov. Eng.] Violent of temper; subject to sudden cranks. Carlyle.

Addicted to crotchets and whims; unreasonable in opinions; crotchety. [Colloq.]

A twist or bend; a turn; a whimsey. [Colloq.] Hudibras.

A twist; a whimsey or whim. [Colloq.]

A perverse fancy; a whim which takes possession of the mind; a conceit. He ruined himself and all that trusted in him by crotchets that he could never explain to any rational man. De Quincey.

The state or character of being crotchety, or whimsical. This belief in rightness is a kind of conscientiousness, and when it degenerates it becomes crotchetiness. J. Grote.

Given to crotchets; subject to whims; as, a crotchety man.

fit ingeniously or complexly. He put together a piece of joinery so crossly indented and whimsically dovetailed . . . that it was indeed a very curious show. Burke.

A hobby ; freak; whim. -- Fad"dist, n. It is your favorite fad to draw plans. G. Eliot.

Full of fancy; guided by fancy, rather than by reason and experience; whimsical; as, a fanciful man forms visionary projects.

An opinion or notion formed without much reflection; caprice; whim; impression. I have always had a fancy that learning might be made a play and recreation to children. Locke.

A lovemonger; a whimsical lover. [Obs.] Shak.

Indulging the vagaries of imagination; whimsical; full of absurd fancies; capricious; as, fantastic minds; a fantastic mistress.

Fanciful; unreal; whimsical; capricious; fantastic.

The quality of being fantastical; fancifulness; whimsicality. Ruskin.