Meaning of Fancy | Babel Free

Definitions

1. The imagination.
2. A surname from Old English
3. An image or representation of anything formed in the mind.
4. An opinion or notion formed without much reflection.
5. A whim.
6. Love or amorous attachment.
7. The object of inclination or liking.
8. Any sport or hobby pursued by a group.
9. The enthusiasts of such a pursuit.
10. A diamond with a distinctive colour.
11. That which pleases or entertains the taste or caprice without much use or value.
12. A bite-sized sponge cake, with a layer of cream, covered in icing.
13. A sort of love song or light impromptu ballad.
    obsolete
14. In the game of jacks, a style of play involving additional actions (contrasted with plainsies).
15. A colored neckerchief worn at prizefights to show support for a contender.
    in-compounds, obsolete, slang

Equivalents

Examples

“[…] But know that in the soul / Are many lesser faculties, that serve / Reason as chief; among these Fancy next / Her office holds […]”

“In the Spring a livelier iris changes on the burnish’d dove; / In the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.”

“Rustic females who habitually chew even pitch or spruce-gum are rendered thereby so repulsive that the fancy refuses to pursue the horror farther and imagine it tobacco […]”

“[I]n ten minutes more the sun was up, and blazing so fiercely, that we were glad to cool ourselves in fancy, by talking over salmon-fishings in Scotland and New Brunswick, and wadings in icy streams beneath the black pine-woods.”

“For a time she could not soothe nor convince him that it was fancy.”

“How now, my lord! why do you keep alone, / Of sorriest fancies your companions making, / Using those thoughts which should indeed have died / With them they think on?”

“Her timbers were olden dreams dreamed long ago, and poets’ fancies made her tall, straight masts, and her rigging was wrought out of the people’s hopes.”

“When you have well viewed the Scenes and Devillish shapes of this Practicall Metamorphosis, and scan’d them in your serious thoughts, you will wonder at their audacious phant’sies, who seeme to hold Specificall deformities, or that any part can seeme unhandsome in their Eyes, which hath appeared good and beautifull unto their Maker […]”

“I have always had a Fancy, that Learning might be made a Play and Recreation to Children […]”

“I dare say I am merely a foolish woman with a young girl's fancies.”

“I had a fancy to learn to play the flute.”

“And they’ve taken a fancy to me, Aunt said. Kitto and the others. That means they like me.”

“He took a fancy to her.”

“For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself / To fit your fancies to your father’s will;”

“Trainspotting is the fancy of a special lot.”

“the cat fancy”

“He fell out of favor with the boxing fancy after the incident.”

“[…] at a great book sale in London, which had congregated all the Fancy, on a copy occurring, not one of the company but ourself knew what the mystical title-page meant.”

“18th century, John Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving Land, cited in Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, 1755, London-pride is a pretty fancy, and does well for borders.”

“a French fancy; a fondant fancy; cream fancies”

“[He] ſung thoſe tunes to the ouer-ſchutcht huſwiues, that he heard the Car-men whiſtle, and ſware they were his fancies or his good-nights, […]”

“When you have mastered plainsies, the regular jack game, and have learned all the rules, you will be ready to use this part of the book. A fancy is a variation of plainsies which usually requires more skill than plainsies does.”

“When you get good at jacks, try adding a fancy. A fancy is an extra round at the end of a game. It makes the game a little harder. Jack Be Nimble, Around the World, or Black Widow are some fancies.”

“the yellow fancy; the cream fancy; the blood-red fancy”

CEFR level