CAPRICE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does caprice mean? 

• CAPRICE (noun)
  The noun CAPRICE has 1 sense:

1. a sudden desire

  Familiarity information: CAPRICE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CAPRICE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A sudden desire

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

caprice; impulse; whim

Context example:

he bought it on an impulse

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

desire (the feeling that accompanies an unsatisfied state)

Derivation:

capricious (determined by chance or impulse or whim rather than by necessity or reason)

 Context examples 

They have no difficulties to contend with at home, no opposition, no caprice, no delays.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

The gushing fountains which sparkle in the sun, must not be stopped in mere caprice; the oasis in the desert of Sahara must not be plucked up idly.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

There was no caprice, no chance.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I have suffered a martyrdom from their incompetency and caprice.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Mr. Bennet was so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, reserve, and caprice, that the experience of three-and-twenty years had been insufficient to make his wife understand his character.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

“My Emma!” replied Mrs. Weston, smiling, “what is the certainty of caprice?”

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

But he may please to consider, that the caprices of womankind are not limited by any climate or nation, and that they are much more uniform, than can be easily imagined.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Based on or subject to individual discretion or preference or sometimes impulse or caprice.

(Arbitrary, NCI Thesaurus)

We felt that they were not the tyrants to rule our lot according to their caprice, but the agents and creators of all the many delights which we enjoyed.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Mamma was an abject slave to their caprices, but Papa was not so easily subjugated, and occasionally afflicted his tender spouse by an attempt at paternal discipline with his obstreperous son.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)