5. That which pleases or entertains the taste or caprice without much use or value. London pride is a pretty fancy for borders. Mortimer.
6. A sort of love song or light impromptu ballad. [Obs.] Shak. The fancy, all of a class who exhibit and cultivate any peculiar taste or fancy; hence, especially, sporting characters taken collectively, or any specific class of them, as jockeys, gamblers, prize fighters, etc. At a great book sale in London, which had congregated all the fancy. De Quincey.
Syn.
— Imagination; conceit; taste; humor; inclination; whim; liking.
See Imagination.
FANCY
Fan"cy, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Fancied, p. pr. & vb. n. Fancying (.]
1. To figure to one's self; to believe or imagine something without proof. If our search has reached no farther than simile and metaphor, we rather fancy than know. Locke.
2. To love. [Obs.] Shak.
FANCY
Fan"cy, v. t.
1. To form a conception of; to portray in the mind; to imagine. He whom I fancy, but can ne'er express. Dryden.
2. To have a fancy for; to like; to be pleased with, particularly on account of external appearance or manners. "We fancy not the cardinal." Shak.
3. To believe without sufficient evidence; to imagine (something which is unreal). He fancied he was welcome, because those arounde him were his kinsmen. Thackeray.