FANCY (fancied, fancier, fanciest)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: fancied    , fancier    , fanciest   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does fancy mean? 

• FANCY (noun)
  The noun FANCY has 3 senses:

1. something many people believe that is false

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

3. a predisposition to like something

  Familiarity information: FANCY used as a noun is uncommon.

• FANCY (adjective)
  The adjective FANCY has 1 sense:

1. not plain; decorative or ornamented

  Familiarity information: FANCY used as an adjective is very rare.

• FANCY (verb)
  The verb FANCY has 2 senses:

1. imagine; conceive of; see in one's mind

2. have a fancy or particular liking or desire for

  Familiarity information: FANCY used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FANCY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Something many people believe that is false

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

fancy; fantasy; illusion; phantasy

Context example:

they have the illusion that I am very wealthy

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 2

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Context example:

never had the wildest flights of fancy imagined such magnificence

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 3

Meaning:

A predisposition to like something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

fancy; fondness; partiality

Context example:

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

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

liking (a feeling of pleasure and enjoyment)

Derivation:

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

• FANCY (adjective)

Comparative: fancier   
Superlative: fanciest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not plain; decorative or ornamented

Context example:

fancy clothes

Similar:

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

rococo (having excessive asymmetrical ornamentation)

puff; puffed (gathered for protruding fullness)

busy; fussy (overcrowded or cluttered with detail)

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)

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)

• FANCY (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they fancy    ... he / she / it fancies   
Past simple: fancied   
Past participle: fancied   
-ing form: fancying   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Imagine; conceive of; see in one's mind

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Synonyms:

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

Context example:

I can see a risk in this strategy

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

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

fancy; go for; take to

Context example:

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

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)

 Context examples 

But to me it seems immensely practical, and I fancy that Brunton took the same view.

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

Come, Watson, I fancy that we may employ ourselves more profitably at home.

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

Lady Russell loved them all; but it was only in Anne that she could fancy the mother to revive again.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Nothing could now be clearer than the absurdity of her recent fancies.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

This note I had this morning marks my zero-point, I fancy.

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

“Suppose I were to find him there again to-day!” said she to herself, in a fond indulgence of fancy.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The next, 'The theory of the book is bad, full of morbid fancies, spiritualistic ideas, and unnatural characters.'

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Only for a flashing moment did she see this, then she saw the lout returned, and she laughed at the whim of her fancy.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I can fancy what a wonderful power he must have over his patients.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

So, in his fancy, may he see himself sometimes, gracing the vacant pedestal in Trafalgar Square, and adding one more to the horrors of the London streets.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)