ETYM French caprice, Italian capriccio, caprice (perh. orig. a fantastical goat leap), from Latin caper, capra, goat. Cf Capriole, Cab, Caper.
A sudden desire; SYN. impulse, vagary, whim.
ETYM Contr. from fantasy, Old Fren. fantasie, fantaisie, French fantaisie, Latin phantasia, from Greek to make visible, to place before one's mind, from phainein to show.
Fancy was held by Coleridge to be more casual and superficial than imagination.
ETYM Prob. from Old Eng. frek bold, as. frec bold, greedly; akin to Old High Germ. freh greedly, German frech insolent, Icel. frekr greedy, Goth. faíhufriks avaricious.
A person or animal that is markedly unusual or deformed; SYN. monster, monstrosity, lusus naturae.
ETYM For sulkenness, from AS. solcen slothful, remiss, in âsolcen, besolcen, properly p. p. of sealcan in âsealcan to be weak or slothful; of uncertain origin.
1. A feeling of sulky resentment; SYN. huffishness.
2. A sullen moody resentful disposition; SYN. sullenness, moroseness, sourness.
1. A characteristic (habitual or relatively temporary) state of feeling; SYN. mood, humor, humour.
2. A disposition to exhibit uncontrolled anger; SYN. biliousness, irritability, peevishness, pettishness, snappishness, surliness.
3. The elasticity and hardness of a metal object; its ability to absorb considerable energy before cracking; SYN. toughness.
ETYM Latin vagari to stroll about. Related to Vague.
1. A wandering or strolling.
2. A wandering of the thoughts; a wild or fanciful freak; a whim; a whimsical purpose.
3. Whim, caprice.
ETYM Old Eng. veine, French veine, Latin vena.
In animals with a circulatory system, any vessel that carries blood from the body to the heart. Veins contain valves that prevent the blood from running back when moving against gravity. They always carry deoxygenated blood, with the exception of the veins leading from the lungs to the heart in birds and mammals, which carry newly oxygenated blood.
The term is also used more loosely for any system of channels that strengthens living tissues and supplies them with nutrients —for example, leaf veins (see vascular bundle), and the veins in insects' wings.
(Homonym: vain, vein).
1. A blood vessel that carries blood from the capillaries toward the heart; all veins except the pulmonary carry unaerated blood; SYN. vena.
2. A distinctive style or manner.
3. One of the horny ribs that stiffen and support the wing of an insect; SYN. nervure.
4. One of the vascular bundles or ribs that form the branching framework of conducting and supporting tissues in a leaf or other plant organ; SYN. nervure.
1. A capricious or eccentric and often sudden idea or turn of the mind; fancy
2. A large capstan that is made with one or more radiating arms to which a horse may be yoked and that is used in mines for raising ore or water
A whimsey.