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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



61 words match “FANCIFUL”

RUSTIC a.
odwork) Summer houses, or furniture for summer houses, etc., made of rough limbs of trees fancifully arranged.
SECRETARY n.
Etym: [So called in allusion to the tufts of feathers at the back of its head, which were fancifully thought to resemble pens stuck behind the ear.] (Zoöl.) A large long-legged raptorial bird (Gypogeranus serpentarius), native of South Africa, but now naturalized in the West Indies and some other tropical countries. It…
SIMILITUDE n.
The act of likening, or that which likens, one thing to another; fanciful or imaginative comparison; a simile. Tasso, in his similitudes, never departed from the woods; that is, all his comparisons were taken from the country. Dryden.
SNAPDRAGON n.
lariaceous genus Antirrhinum, especially the cultivated A. majus, whose showy flowers are fancifully likened to the face of a dragon.
SOBRIQUET n.
An assumed name; a fanciful epithet or appellation; a nickname. [Sometimes less correctly written soubriquet.]
STAID a.
Sober; grave; steady; sedate; composed; regular; not wild, volatile, or fanciful. "Sober and staid persons." Addison. O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue. Milton.
TOPIARY a.
c.; topiarian. Topiary work, arbors, shrubbery, hedges, or the like, cut and trimmed into fanciful forms, as of animals, building, etc.
TRANSCRIPTION n.
ion; an arrangement; -- a name applied by modern composes for the piano to a more or less fanciful and ornate reproduction on their own instrument of a song or other piece not originally intended for it; as, Listzt's transcriptions of songs by Schubert.
UNREAL a.
Not real; unsubstantial; fanciful; ideal.
UTOPIAN a.
Of or pertaining to Utopia; resembling Utopia; hence, ideal; chimerical; fanciful; founded upon, or involving, imaginary perfections; as, Utopian projects; Utopian happiness.
VAGARY n.
Hence, a wandering of the thoughts; a wild or fanciful freak; a whim; a whimsical purpose. "The vagaries of a child." Spectator. They changed their minds, Flew off, and into strange vagaries fell. Milton.
VANE n.
eathercock. It is usually a plate or strip of metal, or slip of wood, often cut into some fanciful form, and placed upon a perpendicular axis around which it moves freely. Aye undiscreet, and changing as a vane. Chaucer.
VARIATION n.
Repetition of a theme or melody with fanciful embellishments or modifications, in time, tune, or harmony, or sometimes change of key; the presentation of a musical thought in new and varied aspects, yet so that the essential features of the original shall still preserve their identity.
VARY v.
To embellish; to change fancifully; to present under new aspects, as of form, key, measure, etc. See Variation, 4.
VIEWY a.
Having peculiar views; fanciful; visionary; unpractical; as, a viewy person.
VINEGAR n.
fermenting vegetable substances; -- called also vinegar worm. -- Vinegar lamp (Chem.), a fanciful name of an apparatus designed to oxidize alcohol to acetic acid by means of platinum. -- Vinegar plant. See 4th Mother. -- Vinegar tree (Bot.), the stag-horn sumac (Rhus typhina), whose acid berries have been used to in…
VISIONARY a.
Existing in imagination only; not real; fanciful; imaginary; having no solid foundation; as, visionary prospect; a visionary scheme or project. Swift.
WATCH n.
aper, an old-fashioned ornament for the inside of a watch case, made of paper cut in some fanciful design, as a vase with flowers, etc. -- Watch tackle (Naut.), a small, handy purchase, consisting of a tailed double block, and a single block with a hook.
WHIMSEY; WHIMSY n.
A whim; a freak; a capricious notion, a fanciful or odd conceit. "The whimsies of poets and painters." Ray. Men's folly, whimsies, and inconstancy. Swift. Mistaking the whimseys of a feverish brain for the calm revelation of truth. Bancroft.
WILD a.
rbulent; tempestuous; violent; ungoverned; licentious; inordinate; disorderly; irregular; fanciful; imaginary; visionary; crazy. "Valor grown wild by pride." Prior. "A wild, speculative project." Swift. What are these So withered and so wild in their attire Shak. With mountains, as with weapons, armed; which makes Wild…
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