fancy
ornamental; decorative; not plain: a cake with a fancy icing.
tending or intending to impress: a fancy degree in geophysics;fancy four-syllable words.
complicated or difficult to perform or execute: a couple doing some fancy footwork on the dance floor.
made, designed, grown, adapted, etc., to please the taste or fancy; of superfine quality or exceptional appeal: fancy goods; fancy fruits.
bred to develop points of beauty or excellence, as an animal.
much too costly; exorbitant or extravagant: a consultant who charges fancy fees.
imagination or fantasy, especially as exercised in a capricious manner.
the artistic ability of creating unreal or whimsical imagery, decorative detail, etc., as in poetry or drawing.
a mental image or conception: He had happy fancies of being a famous actor.
an idea or opinion with little foundation; illusion: Her belief that she can sing is a mere fancy.
capricious preference; inclination; a liking: to take a fancy to walking barefoot in the streets.
critical judgment; taste.
the breeding of animals to develop points of beauty or excellence.
the fancy, Archaic. people deeply interested in a sport, art, etc.
Obsolete. sexual love.
to form a conception of; picture to oneself: Fancy living with that egotist all your life!
to believe without being absolutely sure or certain: I fancy you are my new neighbor.
to take a liking to; like: I really fancy the spotted one in that litter.
to want or desire: I fancy another piece of cake.
to breed to develop a special type of animal.
Also fancy that . (used as an exclamation of mild surprise): They invited you, too? Fancy!
fancy up, to make superficially showy by way of improvement: an old car fancied up with a bright new paint job.
Origin of fancy
1synonym study For fancy
word story For fancy
The original meaning of fancy, “individual preference or liking, arbitrary inclination,” as in “to take a fancy to someone,” was only one of several meanings of Middle English fantasie, a technical word in the psychology of scholasticism (the system of theological and philosophical teaching and disputation predominant in the Middle Ages, based chiefly upon the authority of the Bible, of the church fathers, and of Aristotle and his pagan, Christian, Muslim, and Jewish commentators).
The adjective fancy, meaning “fine, ornamental,” did not appear until 1753; it developed from attributive use of the noun in the sense “designed to please the taste or fancy.”
Other words for fancy
Other words from fancy
- fan·ci·ness, noun
- un·fan·cy, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use fancy in a sentence
Gulnara attended Harvard; she fancies herself an artist of many talents.
Gulnara Karimova’s Tweets Hint at Uzbek Power Struggle | Anonymous | November 22, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTThe mountain resort town of Dalat fancies itself “The Paris of Vietnam,” complete with a replica Eiffel Tower in the center.
Eli fancies himself a bong-wielding Holden Caulfield in a bathrobe.
Must Reads: Kennedy, Sontag and Paris, ‘A Partial History of Lost Causes,’ ‘City of Bohane,’ ‘Flatscreen’ | Lauren Elkin, Mythili Rao, Drew Toal, Nicholas Mancusi | April 6, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTBe willing to act on whims, fancies and, yes, fantasies, too.
He fancies an American actor named Barrymore, but Barrymore, a prodigious drunk, soon storms back to Los Angeles.
But agitation unlocks wayward fancies and sends them scurrying inopportunely across the very foreground of the mind.
Ancestors | Gertrude AthertonShe could not work on such a day, nor weave fancies to stir her pulses and warm her blood.
The Awakening and Selected Short Stories | Kate ChopinHe is my brother's most intimate associate and often fancies that he is entitled to the same privileges as the family.
The Awakening and Selected Short Stories | Kate ChopinYet, when I was a young man, I never bothered my head about royalty, but I was as full of wild fancies as a balloon is of wind.
The Whale and the Grasshopper | Seumas O'BrienFor several evenings I could not observe Mars through the telescope without my attention being diverted by many strange fancies.
Urania | Camille Flammarion
British Dictionary definitions for fancy
/ (ˈfænsɪ) /
not plain; ornamented or decorative: a fancy cake; fancy clothes
requiring skill to perform; intricate: a fancy dance routine
arising in the imagination; capricious or illusory
(often used ironically) superior in quality or impressive: a fancy course in business administration
higher than expected: fancy prices
(of a domestic animal) bred for particular qualities
a sudden capricious idea; whim
a sudden or irrational liking for a person or thing
the power to conceive and represent decorative and novel imagery, esp in poetry. Fancy was held by Coleridge to be more casual and superficial than imagination: See imagination (def. 4)
an idea or thing produced by this
a mental image
taste or judgment, as in art of dress
Also called: fantasy, fantasia music a composition for solo lute, keyboard, etc, current during the 16th and 17th centuries
the fancy archaic those who follow a particular sport, esp prize fighting
to picture in the imagination
to suppose; imagine: I fancy it will rain
(often used with a negative) to like: I don't fancy your chances!
(reflexive) to have a high or ill-founded opinion of oneself: he fancied himself as a doctor
informal to have a wish for; desire: she fancied some chocolate
British informal to be physically attracted to (another person)
to breed (animals) for particular characteristics
Also: fancy that! an exclamation of surprise or disbelief
Origin of fancy
1Derived forms of fancy
- fancily, adverb
- fanciness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with fancy
see flight of fancy; footloose and fancy-free; take a fancy to; tickle one's fancy;.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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