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WHIM
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
An odd or fanciful or capricious idea
Example:
whimsy can be humorous to someone with time to enjoy it
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("whim" is a kind of...):
idea; thought (the content of cognition; the main thing you are thinking about)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A sudden desire
Example:
he bought it on an impulse
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Hypernyms ("whim" is a kind of...):
desire (the feeling that accompanies an unsatisfied state)
Context examples:
You think me unsteady: easily swayed by the whim of the moment, easily tempted, easily put aside.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
My whim is gratified; and now I think Mr. Eshton will do well to put the hag in the stocks to-morrow morning, as he threatened.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
“Excuse me, my dear fellow,” said he, as we watched the rear carriages of our train disappearing round a curve, “I am sorry to make you the victim of what may seem a mere whim, but on my life, Watson, I simply can’t leave that case in this condition.”
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
He was a mad god at best, but White Fang knew nothing of madness; he knew only that he must submit to the will of this new master, obey his every whim and fancy.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
With her children they were in continual raptures, extolling their beauty, courting their notice, and humouring their whims; and such of their time as could be spared from the importunate demands which this politeness made on it, was spent in admiration of whatever her ladyship was doing, if she happened to be doing any thing, or in taking patterns of some elegant new dress, in which her appearance the day before had thrown them into unceasing delight.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Each moment I looked, and everybody looked, for him to leap upon the boy and destroy him. But it was not his whim.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
Indeed, my dear, it's not a whim.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Follies and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies, do divert me, I own, and I laugh at them whenever I can.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
Where were all my nightly dreams of the open arms, the smiling face, the words of praise for her man who had risked his life to humor her whim?
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
You remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
