| 释义 |
whimsical, a. (n.)|ˈhwɪmzɪkəl|
Also 7 whym-.
[f. whimsy + -ical.]
1. Of persons, their actions, thoughts, etc.: Full of, subject to, or characterized by a whim or whims; actuated by or depending upon whim or caprice.
1653W. Ramesey Astrol. Rest. To Rdr. 10 So they fell to words and at last (to end this Whimsical controversie) they resolved to kill one another. Ibid. 11 Were not they better be..grave, sober, serious, then whymiscal, fickle and fantastical? 1690C. Nesse O. & N. Test. I. 251 So do the whimsical Enthusiasts..make long relations of strange dreams. 1703Earl of Orrery As you find it iii. i. 35 A Man with a fantastical, whimsical Stomach may starve in the midst of Plenty, not for want of Food, but such as he likes. 1711Addison Spect. No. 101 ⁋7 One Sir Roger de Coverley, a whimsical Country Knight. 1756Burke Subl. & Beaut. iii. xi. (1759) 208 It has given rise to an infinite deal of whimsical theory. 1809Malkin Gil Blas iv. vii. ⁋2 One of those old codgers who have been a little whimsical or so in their youth. 1839Hallam Lit. Eur. ii. vii. §20 It would be rather whimsical to deny this to be a principal merit in a comparison. 1875J. E. T. Rogers Protests of Lords I. Pref. p. lvi, Two whimsical dissents from Lords Radnor and Abingdon.
2. Characterized by deviation from the ordinary as if determined by mere caprice; fantastic, fanciful; freakish, odd, comical.
1675E. Wilson Spadacr. Dunelm. Pref. B 5 b, Panacæa's, Universal Medicines, Secrets, and such like whimsical Remedies. 1687T. Brown Saints in Uproar Wks. 1730 I. 79 The most whimsical scene of the farce is still behind. a1700Evelyn Diary 29 Nov. 1644, A whimsical chayre, which folded into so many varieties as to turn into a bed, a bolster, a table, or a couch. 1710Swift Lett. (1767) III. 57 Is it not whimsical that the dean has never once written to me? 1769Burke Corr. (1844) I. 165 Matters here are in a situation whimsical enough. 1773Wesley Jrnl. 29 Nov., Wks. 1830 IV. 5, I went..to Sheerness; over that whimsical ferry, where footmen and horses pay nothing. 1826F. Reynolds Life & Times I. 193 The Germans are whimsical animals in their appearance. 1836Brande Chem. (ed. 4) 17 Alembics, stills, retorts, receivers, and a variety of whimsical and complex vessels. 1852Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. ix. 66 Our senator..looked after his little wife with a whimsical mixture of amusement and vexation. 1890Science-Gossip XXVI. 85 All these whimsical prescriptions gradually fell out of the Pharmacopœias.
absol.1740Cibber Apol. (1756) I. 112 Who..delighted more in the whimsical than the natural. 1838Dickens Nich. Nick. xxiv, Hesitating between the respect he ought to assume, and his love of the whimsical.
†b. Subject to uncertainty or the ‘caprice of fortune’. Obs.
1654Whitlock Zootomia 151 Must the bread of Life be ground only by the winde of every Doctrine? and whimsicall Wind-Mills? 1700Congreve Way of World ii. vii, A Fellow that lives in a Windmill has not a more whimsical Dwelling than the Heart of a Man that is lodg'd in a Woman. There is no Point of the Compass to which they cannot turn. 1716Addison Freeholder No. 18 ⁋3, I shall only take notice of the whimsical circumstances a people must lie under, who can be thus made poor or rich by an edict. 1748Richardson Clarissa (1768) III. 191 Poor man! he stands a whimsical chance between us.
B. n. (in pl.) A cant name for a section of the Tories in the reign of Queen Anne: see quots.
1714Swift Pres. St. Aff. Wks. 1841 I. 492/2 That race of politicians, who in the cant phrase are called the whimsicals. 1818Scott Br. Lamm. xxvii, Many of the High Church party..affected to separate their principles from those of the Jacobites, and, on that account, obtained the denomination of Whimsicals. |