FANCIFUL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does fanciful mean? 

• FANCIFUL (adjective)
  The adjective FANCIFUL has 3 senses:

1. indulging in or influenced by fancy

2. not based on fact; existing only in the imagination

3. having a curiously intricate quality

  Familiarity information: FANCIFUL used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FANCIFUL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Indulging in or influenced by fancy

Synonyms:

fanciful; notional

Context example:

all the notional vagaries of childhood

Similar:

creative; originative (having the ability or power to create)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Not based on fact; existing only in the imagination

Synonyms:

fanciful; imaginary; notional

Context example:

to create a notional world for oneself

Similar:

unreal (lacking in reality or substance or genuineness; not corresponding to acknowledged facts or criteria)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Having a curiously intricate quality

Context example:

a fanciful pattern with intertwined vines and flowers

Similar:

fancy (not plain; decorative or ornamented)

 Context examples 

Has this mind, so replete with ideas, imaginations fanciful and magnificent, which formed a world, whose existence depended on the life of its creator;—has this mind perished?

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

But there was now a great darkness besides; and that invested the storm with new terrors, real and fanciful.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

No doubt you thought me fanciful.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It offended him both as a lawyer and as a lover of the sane and customary sides of life, to whom the fanciful was the immodest.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

“Especially when one of those two is such a fanciful, troublesome creature!” said Emma playfully.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The root is shaped like a foot, half human, half goatlike; hence the fanciful name given by a botanical missionary.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

While his imagination was fanciful, even fantastic at times, he had a basic love of reality that compelled him to write about the things he knew.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

“Here it is,” said he presently: Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to the sound produced by cocking a rifle.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Lord John's observations are frequently exceedingly fanciful, and he is capable of attributing the most absurd reasons to the respect which is always shown by the most undeveloped races to dignity and character.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There is a great deal of truth in what you say, replied Sir Thomas, and far be it from me to throw any fanciful impediment in the way of a plan which would be so consistent with the relative situations of each.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)