Whim definition

wĭm, hwĭm
whims
See word origin
Frequency:
The definition of a whim is a sudden desire to do something that wasn't planned.

An example of a whim is when you suddenly decide to go to Atlantic City on the spur of the moment because you feel like gambling.

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A vertical horse-powered drum used as a hoist in a mine.
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A sudden fancy; idle and passing notion; capricious idea or desire.
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A kind of winch or capstan powered by a horse or steam, formerly used in mines to raise ore or water.
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(mining) A large capstan or vertical drum turned by horse power or steam power, for raising ore or water, etc., from mines, or for other purposes.
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A bird, the European widgeon.
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(astronomy) Warm-hot intergalactic medium.
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A sudden or capricious idea; a fancy.
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Arbitrary thought or impulse.

Governed by whim.

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Other Word Forms

Noun

Singular:
whim
Plural:
whims

Origin of whim

  • Short for whim-wham fanciful object

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • Apocopal derivation of "whim-wham."

    From Wiktionary

  • Compare whimbrel.

    From Wiktionary

Whim Sentence Examples

  • I'm simply stating that I'm not leaving my destiny to the whim of a man.

  • Naturally white-blonde, she'd dyed it pink on a whim last weekend.

  • This was a digression of a new kind, if anything can be called a digression in a work the plan of which is to fly off at a tangent whenever and wherever the writer's whim tempts him.

  • That was no sudden whim on the writer's part.

  • He was the creature of every passing mood or whim, incapable of cool and steady judgment or of the slightest self-control - an incalculable weathercock, blindly obsequious to every blast of passion.

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Words near whim in the Dictionary