whim

See also: WHIM

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /(h)wɪm/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪm

Etymology 1

Clipping of whim-wham.

Noun

whim (countable and uncountable, plural whims)

1. A fanciful impulse, or sudden change of idea.
   • 1763, Charles Churchill, The Ghost, book IV, J. Coote, →OCLC, page 137:

     Let ev’ry Man enjoy his whim; / What’s He to Me, or I to him?

   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 269:

     The king was tired of this whim of hers long ago, and thought she ought to get married like other people; there was nothing she need wait for, she was old enough and she would not be any richer either, for she was to have half the kingdom, which she inherited after her mother.

   • 2019 May 19, Alex McLevy, “The final Game Of Thrones brings a pensive but simple meditation about stories (newbies)”, in The A.V. Club‎^[1]:

     “You’re either with me or you’re against me” became Dany’s credo, and those against her were an ever-changing multitude to be determined solely by her whims.

2. (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

Synonyms

• (fancy): lark, especially in phrase on a whim, see also Thesaurus:whim

Derived terms

Derived terms

• on a whim
• whim gin
• whim shaft
• whimsical

Translations

fanciful impulse

• Albanian: rrebe (sq)
• Azerbaijani: şıltaq
• Bikol Central: kauragan (bcl)
• Bulgarian: прищявка (bg) f (prištjavka), каприз (bg) m (kapriz)
• Catalan: antull (ca) m, capritx (ca) m, caprici (ca) m, dèria f, curolla (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 怪念頭／怪念头 (zh) (guàiniàntóu), 奇想 (zh) (qíxiǎng)

• Czech: rozmar (cs) m
• Dutch: gril (nl)
• Esperanto: kaprico (eo)
• Finnish: oikku (fi)
• French: lubie (fr) f, caprice (fr) m
• Galician: antollo (gl) m, capricho (gl) m
• German: Laune (de) f, Grille (de) f, Marotte (de) f, Kaprize (de) f, Verrücktheit (de) f, wunderlicher Einfall m
• Greek:

  Ancient: σχεδίασμα n (skhedíasma)

• Hebrew: גַּחֲמָה (he) f (gaẖamá)
• Hungarian: szeszély (hu)
• Icelandic: dyntur (is) m, duttlungur (is) m, kenjar f pl
• Italian: capriccio (it) m, ghiribizzo (it) m, fantasia (it) f, stravaganza (it) f, stranezza (it) f, griccio m, stramberia (it) f, grillo (it) m, uzzolo (it) m, sfizio (it) m, gnagnera f
• Japanese: 気紛れ (ja) (きまぐれ, kimagure)
• Latin: arbitrium n
• Macedonian: хир m (hir)
• Maori: whakaaro ohia
• Persian: ویر (fa) (vir)
• Polish: kaprys (pl) m,widzimisię (pl) n
• Portuguese: inspiração (pt), capricho (pt)
• Romanian: capriciu (ro) n, toană (ro) f
• Russian: капри́з (ru) m (kapríz), при́хоть (ru) f (príxotʹ), блажь (ru) f (blažʹ), причу́да (ru) f (pričúda)
• Serbo-Croatian: хи̑р m, hȋr (sh) m
• Slovak: vrtoch m, rozmar m
• Slovene: kaprica f
• Spanish: capricho (es) m, ventolera
• Swedish: nyck (sv) c, infall (sv) n
• Turkish: kapris (tr)

Verb

whim (third-person singular simple present whims, present participle whimming, simple past and past participle whimmed)

1. (rare, intransitive) To be seized with a whim; to be capricious.

Further reading

• Picture of a horse-powered whim used to wind the cables on to work the mine between the depth of 50 feet to 500 feet - photo taken at Gympie, Queensland, Australia

Etymology 2

Compare whimbrel.

Noun

whim (plural whims)

1. A bird, the Eurasian wigeon.