Library / English Dictionary

FANCY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: fancied    , fancier    , fanciest   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Imagination or fantasy; held by Coleridge to be more casual and superficial than true imagination

Example:

never had the wildest flights of fancy imagined such magnificence

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("fancy" is a kind of...):

imagination; imaginativeness; vision (the formation of a mental image of something that is not perceived as real and is not present to the senses)

Derivation:

fancy (imagine; conceive of; see in one's mind)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Something many people believe that is false

Example:

they have the illusion that I am very wealthy

Synonyms:

fancy; fantasy; illusion; phantasy

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("fancy" is a kind of...):

misconception (an incorrect conception)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fancy"):

bubble (an impracticable and illusory idea)

ignis fatuus; will-o'-the-wisp (an illusion that misleads)

wishful thinking (the illusion that what you wish for is actually true)

Derivation:

fancy (imagine; conceive of; see in one's mind)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A predisposition to like something

Example:

she had dismissed him quite brutally, relegating him to the status of a passing fancy, or less

Synonyms:

fancy; fondness; partiality

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Hypernyms ("fancy" is a kind of...):

liking (a feeling of pleasure and enjoyment)

Derivation:

fancy (have a fancy or particular liking or desire for)

 II. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not plain; decorative or ornamented

Example:

fancy clothes

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

vermicular; vermiculate; vermiculated (decorated with wormlike tracery or markings)

rococo (having excessive asymmetrical ornamentation)

puff; puffed (gathered for protruding fullness)

lacelike; lacy (made of or resembling lace)

fantastic (extravagantly fanciful in design, construction, appearance)

fanciful (having a curiously intricate quality)

battlemented; castellated; castled; embattled (having or resembling repeated square indentations like those in a battlement)

elaborate; luxuriant (marked by complexity and richness of detail)

damask (having a woven pattern)

damascene ((of metals) decorated or inlaid with a wavy pattern of different (especially precious) metals)

crackle (having the surface decorated with a network of fine cracks, as in crackleware)

dressy (in fancy clothing)

busy; fussy (overcrowded or cluttered with detail)

baroque; churrigueresco; churrigueresque (having elaborate symmetrical ornamentation)

aureate; flamboyant; florid (elaborately or excessively ornamented)

Also:

adorned; decorated (provided with something intended to increase its beauty or distinction)

rhetorical (given to rhetoric, emphasizing style at the expense of thought)

Antonym:

plain (not elaborate or elaborated; simple)

 III. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Imagine; conceive of; see in one's mind

Example:

I can see a risk in this strategy

Synonyms:

envision; fancy; figure; image; picture; project; see; visualise; visualize

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Hypernyms (to "fancy" is one way to...):

conceive of; envisage; ideate; imagine (form a mental image of something that is not present or that is not the case)

Verb group:

realise; realize; see; understand (perceive (an idea or situation) mentally)

visualise; visualize (form a mental picture of something that is invisible or abstract)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Derivation:

fancy (imagination or fantasy; held by Coleridge to be more casual and superficial than true imagination)

fancy (something many people believe that is false)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Have a fancy or particular liking or desire for

Example:

She fancied a necklace that she had seen in the jeweler's window

Synonyms:

fancy; go for; take to

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Hypernyms (to "fancy" is one way to...):

desire; want (feel or have a desire for; want strongly)

"Fancy" entails doing...:

like (find enjoyable or agreeable)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence examples:

Sam cannot fancy Sue

They fancy more bread

Derivation:

fancier (a person having a strong liking for something)

fancy (a predisposition to like something)

Credits

 Context examples: 

“It's nothing but fancy. What do you call your girl?”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But I wonder no wealthy nobleman or gentleman has taken a fancy to her: Mr. Rochester, for instance.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

And for the space of several minutes he lay there, quiet, indulging his grotesque fancy.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

You are in a melancholy humour, and fancy that any one unlike yourself must be happy.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Indeed, on a second glance, it seemed impossible to fancy that the body was in a natural position.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

If you have a fancy to see your name in the next honours list—

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I fancy, Lizzy, that obstinacy is the real defect of his character, after all.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

“I rather fancy,” said my uncle, calmly, “that this must be my man.”

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Yes, or I have been slave to my own fancy.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Then I fancy we have seen him, for the day before we picked you up we saw some dogs drawing a sledge, with a man in it, across the ice.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)