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caprice Definition

ca·price (kə prēs′)

noun

  1. a sudden, impulsive change in the way one thinks or acts; freakish notion; whim
  2. a capricious quality or nature
  3. Music a capriccio

Etymology: Fr < It capriccio, a shivering, whim < capo (< L caput, head) + riccio, curl, frizzled, lit., hedgehog (< L ericius: see urchin); hence, orig., head with bristling hair, horripilation; meaning infl. by assoc. with It capriola (see capriole) & capra < L capra, she-goat

caprice Synonyms

caprice

n.

whim, vagary, notion, fancy, impulse, eccentricity, crotchet, quirk, freak, whimsy, humor, maggot, megrim, capriciousness, fancifulness, whimsicality, flightiness, fickleness, changeableness; see also quirk.

caprice refers to a sudden, impulsive, apparently unmotivated turn of mind or emotion discharged at the caprice of a foreman; whim and whimsy can both refer to an idle, quaint, or curious notion, but whim more often suggests willfulness and whimsy fancifulness pursuing a whim, he wrote a poem full of whimsy; vagary suggests a highly unusual or extravagant notion the vagaries of fashion in women's clothes; crotchet implies great eccentricity and connotes stubbornness in opposition to prevailing thought, usually on some insignificant point his crotchets concerning diet

caprice Usage Examples

Preposition: of

  • fashion: This is a season trade, and subject also to much irregularity from the caprices of fashion.
  • nature: A caprice of nature; a broken projector at the local movie palace; a malfunctioning condom?

Converse of object

  • conceal: These are not mere mechanical rules, but neither are they simply fictions to conceal caprice.

Adjective modifier

  • mere: She took the veil without any reason, physical or moral; it was a mere caprice.
  • human: It is not human caprice, but a principle of public order, which controls property.
  • own: And who is in greater error than he who follows his own caprice without guidance from Allah.

Noun used with modifier

  • chevy: For the police are likely to cost or a chevy caprice to drive the.
caprice Quotes

It is procedure that spells much of the difference between rule by law and rule by whim or caprice.

—Douglas, (George) Norman