Fan"ci*ful (?), a. 1.
Full of fancy; guided by fancy, rather than by reason and
experience; whimsical; as, a fanciful man forms visionary
projects.
2. Conceived in the fancy; not consistent
with facts or reason; abounding in ideal qualities or figures; as, a
fanciful scheme; a fanciful theory.
3. Curiously shaped or constructed; as, she
wore a fanciful headdress.
Gather up all fancifullest shells.
Keats.
Syn. -- Imaginative; ideal; visionary; capricious;
chimerical; whimsical; fantastical; wild. -- Fanciful,
Fantastical, Visionary. We speak of that as
fanciful which is irregular in taste and judgment; we speak of
it as fantastical when it becomes grotesque and extravagant as
well as irregular; we speak of it as visionary when it is
wholly unfounded in the nature of things. Fanciful notions are
the product of a heated fancy, without any tems are made up of oddly
assorted fancies, aften of the most whimsical kind; visionary
expectations are those which can never be realized in fact.
-- Fan"ci*ful*ly, adv. -
Fan"ci*ful*ness, n.
