Citations:fancy

English citations of fancy

		1595 1596	1605 1650 1674 1678 1693	????	1830 1843 1861	1967 1970 1973	2002
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c. 1595, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act I, Scene 1,^[1]
For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself

To fit your fancies to your father’s will;

c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2, Act III, Scene 2,^[2]
[He] sung those tunes to the overscutch’d huswifes that he heard the carmen whistle, and sware they were his fancies or his good-nights.

1650, John Bulwer, Anthropometamorphosis: Man Transform’d, 2nd edition, London, 1653, Epistle Dedicatory, pp. 2-3,^[4]
When you have well viewed the Scenes and Devillish shapes of this Practicall Metamorphosis, and scan’d them in your serious thoughts, you will wonder at their audacious phant’sies, who seeme to hold Specificall deformities, or that any part can seeme unhandsome in their Eyes, which hath appeared good and beautifull unto their Maker […]

1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 5, lines 100-103,^[5]
[…] But know that in the soul

Are many lesser faculties, that serve

Reason as chief; among these Fancy next

Her office holds […]

1678 — John Bunyan. The Pilgrim's Progress.
Come, then, neighbour Pliable, let us turn again, and go home without him; there is a company of these crazy-headed coxcombs, that, when they take a fancy by the end, are wiser in their own eyes than seven men that can render a reason. [Prov. 26:16]

1693, John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education, 13th edition, London, 1764, §148, p. 222, ^[6]
I have always had a Fancy, that Learning might be made a Play and Recreation to Children […]

18th century, John Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving Land, cited in Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, 1755,^[7]
London-pride is a pretty fancy, and does well for borders.

1830, Thomas De Quincey, “Review of Life of Richard Bentley, D.D. by J.H. Monk, D.D.” in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 28, No. 171, September 1830, p. 446, footnote,^[8]
[…] at a great book sale in London, which had congregated all the Fancy, on a copy occurring, not one of the company but ourself knew what the mystical title-page meant.

1843 — Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol.
It is also a fact, that Scrooge had seen it, night and morning, during his whole residence in that place; also that Scrooge had as little of what is called fancy about him as any man in the city of London, even including — which is a bold word — the corporation, aldermen, and livery.

1861, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, “A New Counterblast” in Atlantic Monthly, December 1861, p. 700,^[9]
Rustic females who habitually chew even pitch or spruce-gum are rendered thereby so repulsive that the fancy refuses to pursue the horror farther and imagine it tobacco […]

1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 36:
And they’ve taken a fancy to me, Aunt said. Kitto and the others. That means they like me.

ibid. page 53:

‘Sales,’ said Sarah briefly. ‘If someone’s selling up their bits and pieces, old Mr P. goes round in the dog-cart with William Stubbs and buys up anything that takes his fancy.’

1970, Marta Weigle, Follow my fancy: the book of jacks and jack games (page 22)
When you have mastered plainsies, the regular jack game, and have learned all the rules, you will be ready to use this part of the book. A fancy is a variation of plainsies which usually requires more skill than plainsies does.

1973, American Pigeon Journal (page 159)
I would recommend this little book very highly to anyone who fancies pigeons, novices and veterans alike.

2002, Elizabeth Dana Jaffe, Sherry L. Field, Linda D. Labbo, Jacks (page 26)
When you get good at jacks, try adding a fancy. A fancy is an extra round at the end of a game. It makes the game a little harder. Jack Be Nimble, Around the World, or Black Widow are some fancies.