WHIM • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Whim

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/wɪm/ /hwɪm/ Listen

noun

Whim n. (Zool.) The European widgeon. (Prov. Eng.)

Whim n.

A sudden turn or start of the mind; a temporary eccentricity; a freak; a fancy; a capricious notion; a humor; a caprice. "Let every man enjoy his whim."

(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; called also whim gin, and whimsey.

Whim gin (Mining), a whim. See Whim, 2.

Whim shaft (Mining), a shaft through which ore, water, etc., is raised from a mine by means of a whim.

Synonyms: Freak; caprice; whimsey; fancy. Whim, Freak, Caprice. Freak denotes an impulsive, inconsiderate change of mind, as by a child or a lunatic. Whim is a mental eccentricity due to peculiar processes or habits of thought. Caprice is closely allied in meaning to freak, but implies more definitely a quality of willfulness or wantonness.

verb

Whim v. i. To be subject to, or indulge in, whims; to be whimsical, giddy, or freakish. (R.)

See images of 'Whim'

Etymology of 'Whim'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Whim" Quotes from Famous Books

... a member of the firm, I had a perfect right to do so. I had a chance to make fifty thousand on one lot of lumber. I was not to be prevented from doing so by a whim of my partner. He prefers generally to furnish money, rather than put our business paper on the market. I gave him the opportunity to do so. He refused, and I raised the money as I could. This is simply a question ...

— Desk and Debit - or, The Catastrophes of a Clerk • Oliver Optic

... christian names or nicknames, and no such vain ceremony as knocking or ringing at doors. Clemens was then building the stately mansion in which he satisfied his love of magnificence as if it had been another sealskin coat, and he was at the crest of the prosperity which enabled him to humor every whim or extravagance." ...

— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... needn't trouble yourself! We can look after the children ourselves. You better save what you get to look after yourself when those two get over this whim!" ...

— Cloudy Jewel • Grace Livingston Hill

... elemental than we, and thus feel for them the indulgent compassion that a child excites? However it is, theirs is to us a simple time of primitive emotion and romance, and the tapestries they have left us encourage the whim. ...

— The Tapestry Book • Helen Churchill Candee

... I must differ more widely in our notions of fair play than I hope and believe we do, if you refuse to one whose purpose is neither unjust nor ungenerous, as much license in your columns as you have accorded to Mr. Landor, when it was his whim, without the smallest provocation, to throw obloquy on the ...

— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - April 1843 • Various

More quotes...