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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



61 words match “FANCIFUL”

FANCIFUL a. 3 definitions
Full of fancy; guided by fancy, rather than by reason and experience; whimsical; as, a fanciful man forms visionary projects.
ALHAMBRAIC; ALHAMBRESQUE a.
Made or decorated after the fanciful style of the ornamentation in the Alhambra, which affords an unusually fine exhibition of Saracenic or Arabesque architecture.
ANTIC a.
Odd; fantastic; fanciful; grotesque; ludicrous. The antic postures of a merry-andrew. Addison. The Saxons . . . worshiped many idols, barbarous in name, some monstrous, all antic for shape. Fuller.
CHIMERICAL a.
Merely imaginary; fanciful; fantastic; wildly or vainly conceived; having, or capable of having, no existence except in thought; as, chimerical projects.
CHIMERICALLY adv.
Wildy; vainly; fancifully.
CONCEIT n.
A fanciful, odd, or extravagant notion; a quant fancy; an unnatural 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 tho…
CONCEITED a.
Curiously contrived or designed; fanciful. [Obs.] A conceited chair to sleep in. Evelyn.
CONCEITEDLY adv.
Fancifully; whimsically.
CONUNDRUM n.
A kind of riddle based upon some fanciful or fantastic resemblance between things quite unlike; a puzzling question, of which the answer is or involves a pun. Or pun ambiguous, or conundrum quaint. J. Philips.
CRAZY a.
a bedquilt made of pieces of silk or other material of various sizes, shapes, and colors, fancifully stitched together without definite plan or arrangement.
DEVICE n.
Anything fancifully conceived. Shak.
DOMINO n.
musement, people have arranged such sequences involving thousands of dominoes, arrayed in fanciful patterns. Domino theory. A political theory current in the 1960's, according to which the conversion of one country in South Asia to communism will start a sequential process causing all Asian countries to convert to Comm…
ESSENCE n.
being. As far as gods and heavenly essences Can perish. Milton. He had been indulging in fanciful speculations on spiritual essences, until . . . he had and ideal world of his own around him. W. Irving.
FANCY a.
r to pay fancy prices for giants. Macaulay. Fancy ball, a ball in which porsons appear in fanciful dresses in imitation of the costumes of different persons and nations. -- Fancy fair, a fair at which articles of fancy and ornament are sold, generally for some charitable purpose. -- Fancy goods, fabrics of various co…
FANTASTIC a.
Existing only in imagination; fanciful; imaginary; not real; chimerical.
FANTASTICAL a.
Fanciful; unreal; whimsical; capricious; fantastic.
FANTASTICISM n.
The quality of being fantastical; fancifulness; whimsicality. Ruskin.
FANTASY n.
Fancy; imagination; especially, a whimsical or fanciful conception; a vagary of the imagination; whim; caprice; humor. Is not this something more than fantasy Shak. A thousand fantasies Being to throng into my memory. Milton.
FILIGREE a.
Relating to, composed of, or resembling, work in filigree; as, a filigree basket. Hence: Fanciful; unsubstantial; merely decorative. You ask for reality, not fiction and filigree work. J. C. Shairp.
FLOURISH v. 4 definitions
To make bold and sweeping, fanciful, or wanton movements, by way of ornament, parade, bravado, etc.; to play with fantastic and irregular motion. Impetuous spread The stream, and smoking flourished o'er his head. Pope.
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