fanci

n. 1. One who is governed by fancy. “Not reasoners, but fanciers.” Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. One who fancies or has a special liking for, or interest in, a particular object or class or objects; hence, one who breeds and keeps for sale birds and animals; as, bird fancier, dog fancier, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Full of fancy; guided by fancy, rather than by reason and experience; whimsical; as, a fanciful man forms visionary projects. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Conceived in the fancy; not consistent with facts or reason; abounding in ideal qualities or figures; as, a fanciful scheme; a fanciful theory. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Curiously shaped or constructed; as, she wore a fanciful headdress. [ 1913 Webster ]

Gather up all fancifullest shells. Keats.

Syn. -- Imaginative; ideal; visionary; capricious; chimerical; whimsical; fantastical; wild. -- 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. [ 1913 Webster ]