from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Finical \Fin"i*cal\, a. [From {Fine}, a.]
Affectedly fine; overnice; unduly particular; fastidious.
"Finical taste." --Wordsworth.
[1913 Webster]
The gross style consists in giving no detail, the
finical in giving nothing else. --Hazlitt.
Syn: {Finical}, {Spruce}, {Foppish}.
Usage: These words are applied to persons who are studiously
desirous to cultivate finery of appearance. One who is
spruce is elaborately nice in dress; one who is
finical shows his affectation in language and manner
as well as in dress; one who is foppish distinguishes
himself by going to the extreme of the fashion in the
cut of his clothes, by the tawdriness of his
ornaments, and by the ostentation of his manner. "A
finical gentleman clips his words and screws his body
into as small a compass as possible, to give himself
the air of a delicate person; a spruce gentleman
strives not to have a fold wrong in his frill or
cravat, nor a hair of his head to lie amiss; a foppish
gentleman seeks . . . to render himself distinguished
for finery." --Crabb. -- {Fin"i*cal*ly}, adv. --
{Fin"i*cal*ness}, n.
[1913 Webster]