fancy — OAT · Shobdo

fancy

adjective

he is too hard up to buy fancy clothes:

elaborate, ornate, ornamented, ornamental, decorated, decorative, adorned, embellished, intricate, baroque, rococo, fussy, busy;

ostentatious, showy, flamboyant, gaudy;

luxurious, sumptuous, lavish, extravagant, expensive, deluxe, select, superior, high-class, quality, prime;

informal flash, flashy, fancy-pants, jazzy, ritzy, glitzy, snazzy, posh, classy, over the top, OTT;

British, informal swish.

▷antonyms plain, unobtrusive.

verb

1 I fancied a change of scene:

wish for, want, desire;

long for, yearn for, crave, have a yearning/craving for, hanker after, hunger for, thirst for, sigh for, pine for, dream of, covet;

informal have a yen for, itch for;

archaic be desirous of;

rare desiderate.

2 British, informal she'd fancied him for ages:

be attracted to, find attractive, be captivated by, be infatuated with, be taken with, desire;

lust after, burn for;

informal have taken a shine to, have a crush on, have the hots for, be wild/mad/crazy about, have a thing about, have a pash on, have a soft spot for, be soft on, have eyes for, carry a torch for, go for, lech after/over.

3 I fancied that I could see lights to the south:

think, imagine, guess, believe, have an idea, suppose;

gather, surmise, suspect, conjecture, be of the opinion, be of the view, be under the impression, think it likely/conceivable;

informal reckon.

□ fancy oneself

British, informal

a couple of lads who fancy themselves:

have a high opinion of oneself, be confident of one's abilities;

informal think one is the cat's whiskers/pajamas, think one is God's gift (to women);

British, informal reckon oneself.

▷antonyms be modest.

noun

1 he was able to indulge his fancy to own a farm:

desire, urge, wish, want;

inclination, bent;

whim, impulse, caprice, notion, whimsy, eccentricity, peculiarity, quirk, kink;

preference, fondness, liking, partiality, predilection, predisposition, taste, relish, love, humor, penchant;

yearning, longing, hankering, craving, pining, ache, hunger, thirst, need;

informal yen, itch.

2 they appeal to our wildest fancy rather than our judgment:

imagination, imaginative faculty/power, creativity, creative faculty/power, conception, fancifulness, inventiveness, invention, originality, ingenuity, cleverness, wit, artistry;

images, mental images, visualizations.

▷antonyms intellect.

3 they had a vague fancy that it was cruel to leave the dolls in the dark:

idea, notion, thought, supposition, opinion, belief, impression, image, understanding, conceptualization;

feeling, suspicion, sneaking suspicion, hunch, inkling, intimation;

illusion, fantasy, dream.

□ take a fancy to

Joe met this lovely young girl who took a fancy to him:

fancy, be attracted to, find attractive, be captivated by, be infatuated with, be taken with, desire;

lust after, burn for;