Fan"ci*ful*ness

Fanciful \Fan"ci*ful\, a.
   1. Full of fancy; guided by fancy, rather than by reason and
      experience; whimsical; as, a fanciful man forms visionary
      projects.
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   2. Conceived in the fancy; not consistent with facts or
      reason; abounding in ideal qualities or figures; as, a
      fanciful scheme; a fanciful theory.
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   3. Curiously shaped or constructed; as, she wore a fanciful
      headdress.
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            Gather up all fancifullest shells.    --Keats.

   Syn: Imaginative; ideal; visionary; capricious; chimerical;
        whimsical; fantastical; wild.

   Usage: {Fanciful}, {Fantastical}, {Visionary}. We speak of
          that as fanciful which is irregular in taste and
          judgment; we speak of it as fantastical when it
          becomes grotesque and extravagant as well as
          irregular; we speak of it as visionary when it is
          wholly unfounded in the nature of things. Fanciful
          notions are the product of a heated fancy, without any
          tems are made up of oddly assorted fancies, aften of
          the most whimsical kind; visionary expectations are
          those which can never be realized in fact. --
          {Fan"ci*ful*ly}, adv. -{Fan"ci*ful*ness}, n.
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