2. Conceived in the fancy; not consistent with facts or
reason; abounding in ideal qualities or figures; as, a
fanciful scheme; a fanciful theory.
3. Curiously shaped or constructed; as, she wore a fanciful
headdress.
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.