whimsyn.adj.

1607 B. Jonson Volpone iii. i. sig. F3 I can feele A whimsey i' my bloud: (I know not how) Successe hath made me wanton. View more context for this quotation

1628 T. Venner Baths of Bathe (1650) 365 Such as have their pates full of outlandish whimsies.

1646 J. Hall Horæ Vacivæ 31 That whimsey of Pythagoras of the transmigration of Soules.

1713 W. Derham Physico-theol. i. i. 7 Our Inability to live in too rare and light an Air may discourage those vain Attempts of Flying, and Whimsies of passing to the Moon.

1803 T. Jefferson Writings (1830) III. 508 Plato, who only used the name of Socrates to cover the whimsies of his own brain.

1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. ii. 164 Both had what seemed extravagant whimsies about dress, diversions, and postures.

1891 W. Besant St. Katherine's i. vi Why, I was young once, and had my own whimsies like the rest.

a1680 J. Glanvill Saducismus Triumphatus (1681) ii. 50 All this is Whimsey and Fiction.

1709 Ld. Shaftesbury Moralists ii. v. 151 In one there are the Marks of Wisdom and Determination; in the other, of Whimsy and Conceit.

1775 N. W. Wraxall Cursory Remarks Tour N. Europe 121 It may just as well be called an European structure, where whimsy and caprice form the predominant character.

1881 R. D. Blackmore Christowell (1882) xlviii They winnow my gatherings on every wind of whimsy.

1789 J. Williams Nat. Hist. Mineral Kingdom I. 430 This may be done..with a small horse-gin or whimsy, instead of a windlass, for drawing the water and work in sinking.

1836 Hull & Selby Railw. Act 44 To make use of any gins, whimsies, tackling, ropes, machines.

1875 R. Hunt & F. W. Rudler Ure's Dict. Arts (ed. 7) III. 319 In Cornwall, a kibble, in which the ore is raised in the shafts, by machines called whims or whimseys.

1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. Whimsey, a small crane for hoisting goods to the upper stories of warehouses.

1856 H. Chance in Jrnl. Soc. Arts 15 Feb. 224/2 Still whirling, the table [of crown glass], as it is now called, is carried off, laid flat upon a support called a whimsey, detached by shears from the ponty, [etc.].

1938 A. Fleming Sc. & Jacobite Glass ix. 109 Dame Fashion..seems to settle upon glass as a favourite and satisfactory medium of decoration. Other ‘wimsies’ are cheap little fantastic groups of figures, fruit and flowers delicately made from a tube modelled by a tool with infallible dexterity.

1976 Canadian Collector (Toronto) Mar.–Apr. 23/1 We were able to locate several more examples of the whimseys produced by the last potter.