See Also: Fancy(medicine)
fancy(1)(dictionary)
fancy man(dictionary)
fancy 3, adjective(dictionary)
fancy 1, verb(dictionary)
fancy 2, noun(dictionary)
fancy-free(dictionary)
fancy dress(dictionary)
fancy woman(dictionary)
Fancy Face - Golf(gambling)

fancy(1) (iou)



fancy noun & adjective. ['fansi] LME.
[Contr. of FANTASY noun.]
A. noun.
Capricious or arbitrary preference; individual taste; an inclination (to do), a liking (for). LME.
catch the fancy (of), take the fancy (of) please, attract.
G. Macdonald What could have made Miss Crowther take such a fancy to the boy? R. Davies I've always had a fancy for the name Mungo. B. Pym I've always had a fancy to go there.
b. spec. Inclination in love. M16-E18.
A supposition with no solid basis; an arbitrary notion. L15.
Coleridge As wild a fancy as any of which we have treated.
Caprice, changeful mood; a caprice, a whim. L16.
Ld Macaulay The antipathy of the nation to their religion was not a fancy that would yield to the mandate of a prince.
= FANTASY noun 1. L16-E18.
W. Wollaston We know matters of fact by the help of..impressions made upon phansy.
Delusory imagination; unfounded belief; a delusion. L16.
A. P. Stanley Which..claims to be founded not on fancy..but on Fact. J. Wyndham The..childish fancies were on me again. I found myself waiting for..horrible things.
Orig., imagination, esp. creative imagination. Later, the aptitude for the invention and development of illustrative or decorative imagery. L16.
M. Pattison That ocean-horse in which the poetic fancy of the sea-roving Saxons saw an emblem of their..vessels. G. Huntington Everyone in fancy..went up those steps into the secret gardens.
Something pleasing or entertaining. Now usu., something fancied, as a horse to win a race. L16.
Inventive design; an invention, an original device, a contrivance. Formerly also spec., a musical composition in an impromptu style. L16.
T. Herbert Adorned with..fancies of Arabic characters.
= FANTASY noun 2. E-M17.
P. Holland Dreadfull spectres and fansies skreaking hideously round about him.
Taste, critical judgement. Now rare. M17.
Addison Palaces..built with an excellent Fancy.
the Fancy, those with a certain common hobby or interest, fanciers, esp. patrons of boxing; the art of boxing. M18.
R. L. Stevenson A copy of Boxiana, on the fly-leaves of which a youthful member of the fancy kept a chronicle.
A fancy article; esp. a fancy cake. M19.
M. Bragg A box of teacakes and fancies.
The art of breeding an animal etc. to develop particular points of conventional beauty or excellence; one of these points. L19.
b. adjective (usu. attrib.).
Involving or resulting from caprice; (of an action) capricious, whimsical; (of a price etc.) extravagant. M17.
Dickens As a display of fancy shooting, it was extremely varied and curious. J. T. Micklethwaite They will give a fancy price for a work by a Leighton.
Ornamental, not plain; (of foods etc.) of particularly fine quality; (of flowers etc.) particoloured. M18.
b. Dealing in or selling fancy goods. E19.
Thackeray She buys a couple of begilt Bristol boards at the Fancy Stationers.
Added for ornament or extraordinary use. L18.
Based on fancy or imagination rather than fact. E19.
H. Rogers We..look at this wonderful character as a fancy portrait.
Of an animal etc.: bred to develop particular points of conventional beauty or excellence. E19.
Of a person: being an object of inclination or fancy. E19.
T. S. Eliot One o' them fancy ladsa good soldier and fond o' the ladies.
Special collocations & comb.: fancy bread bread not of the ordinary texture, size, and weight. fancy cake a small iced cake. fancy dress (a) fanciful costume, esp. representing an animal, a character in history or fiction, etc. (fancy-dress ball, a dance at which fancy dress is worn). fancy-free adjective not in love (freq. in footloose and fancy-free). fancy franchise Hist.: based on complicated or arbitrary qualifications. fancy man (a) slang, derog. a man living on the earnings of a prostitute, a pimp; (b) slang, derog. a woman's lover; (c) in pl. = the fancy (see sense 11 above). fancy-piece slang, derog. = fancy woman below. fancy-sick adjective (arch.) love-sick. fancy woman slang, derog. a kept mistress, a man's lover. fancy-work ornamental sewing etc.
fanciless adjective (arch.) M18.
fancily adverb M20.
fanciness noun M20.