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fickle

[fik-uhl]
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adjective
  1. likely to change, especially due to caprice, irresolution, or instability; casually changeable: fickle weather.
  2. not constant or loyal in affections: a fickle lover.
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Origin of fickle

before 1000; Middle English fikel, Old English ficol deceitful, akin to fācen treachery, fician to deceive, gefic deception
Related formsfick·le·ness, nounun·fick·le, adjective

Synonyms for fickle

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1. unstable, unsteady, variable, capricious, fitful. 2. inconstant. 1, 2. Fickle, inconstant, capricious, vacillating describe persons or things that are not firm or steady in affection, behavior, opinion, or loyalty. Fickle implies an underlying perversity as a cause for the lack of stability: the fickle seasons, disappointing as often as they delight; once lionized, now rejected by a fickle public. Inconstant suggests an innate disposition to change: an inconstant lover, flitting from affair to affair. Capricious implies unpredictable changeability arising from sudden whim: a capricious administration constantly and inexplicably changing its signals; a capricious and astounding reversal of position. Vacillating means changeable due to lack of resolution or firmness: an indecisive, vacillating leader, apparently incapable of a sustained course of action.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for fickle

unpredictable, unstable, volatile, flighty, capricious, changeable, temperamental, arbitrary, cheating, faithless, fitful, frivolous, inconstant, irresolute, mercurial, mutable, ticklish, two-timing, unfaithful, unsteady

Examples from the Web for fickle

Contemporary Examples of fickle

Historical Examples of fickle

  • She did not understand the workings of Pee-wee's active and fickle mind.

    Pee-wee Harris

    Percy Keese Fitzhugh

  • Vere, Artois thought, might be violent, but would not be fickle.

    A Spirit in Prison

    Robert Hichens

  • Of these the forms should be fixed, and not allowed to depend on the fickle breath of the multitude.

    Laws

    Plato

  • It is a fickle ally at best, and to rely on its support is to lean on a split reed.

    England and Germany

    Emile Joseph Dillon

  • It was all over, and he had to bear the loss of the fickle girl as best he might.

British Dictionary definitions for fickle

fickle

adjective
  1. changeable in purpose, affections, etc; capricious
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Derived Formsfickleness, noun

Word Origin for fickle

Old English ficol deceitful; related to fician to wheedle, befician to deceive
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

Word Origin and History for fickle

adj.

c.1200, probably from Old English ficol "deceitful, cunning, tricky," related to befician "deceive," and to facen "deceit, treachery." Common Germanic (cf. Old Saxon fekan "deceit," Old High German feihhan "deceit, fraud, treachery"), from PIE *peig- "evil-minded, treacherous, hostile" (cf. Latin piget "it irks, troubles, displeases," piger "reluctant, lazy"). Sense of "changeable" is first recorded late 13c. Related: Fickleness.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper