a. (sb.) Also 7 whym-. [f. WHIMS(Y + -ICAL.]
1. Of persons, their actions, thoughts, etc.: Full of, subject to, or characterized by a whim or whims; actuated by or depending upon whim or caprice.
1653. W. Ramesey, Astrol. Restored, To Rdr. 10. So they fell to words and at last (to end this Whimsical controversie) they resolved to kill one another. Ibid., 11. Were not they better be … grave, sober, serious, then whymsical, fickle and fantastical?
1690. C. Nesse, O. & N. Test., I. 251. So do the whimsical Enthusiasts … make long relations of strange dreams.
1703. Earl Orrery, As you find it, III. i. 35. A Man with a fantastical, whimsical Stomach may starve in the midst of Plenty, not for want of Food, but such as he likes.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 101, ¶ 7. One Sir Roger de Coverley, a whimsical Country Knight.
1756. Burke, Subl. & Beaut., III. xi. (1759), 208. It has given rise to an infinite deal of whimsical theory.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, IV. vii. ¶ 2. One of those old codgers who have been a little whimsical or so in their youth.
1839. Hallam, Lit. Eur., II. vii. § 20. It would be rather whimsical to deny this to be a principal merit in a comparison.
1875. J. E. T. Rogers, Protests of Lords, I. Pref. p. lvi. Two whimsical dissents from Lords Radnor and Abingdon.
2. Characterized by deviation from the ordinary as if determined by mere caprice; fantastic, fanciful; freakish, odd, comical.
1675. E. W[ilson], Spadacr. Dunelm., Pref. B 5 b. Panacæa’s Universal Medicines, Secrets, and such like whimsical Remedies.
1687. T. Brown, Saints in Uproar, Wks. 1730, I. 79. The most whimsical scene of the farce is still behind.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 29 Nov. 1644. A whimsical chayre, which folded into so many varieties as to turn into a bed, a bolster, a table, or a couch.
1710. Swift, Lett. (1767). III. 57. Is it not whimsical that the dean has never once written to me?
1769. Burke, Corr. (1844), I. 165. Matters here are in a situation whimsical enough.
1773. Wesley, Jrnl., 29 Nov., Wks. 1830, IV. 5. I went … to Sheerness; over that whimsical ferry, where footmen and horses pay nothing.
1826. F. Reynolds, Life & Times, I. 193. The Germans are whimsical animals in their appearance.
1836. Brande, Chem. (ed. 4), 17. Alembics, stills, retorts, receivers, and a variety of whimsical and complex vessels.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., ix. 66. Our senator … looked after his little wife with a whimsical mixture of amusement and vexation.
1890. Science-Gossip, XXVI. 85. All these whimsical prescriptions gradually fell out of the Pharmacopœias.
absol. 1740. Cibber, Apol. (1756), I. 112. Who … delighted more in the whimsical than the natural.
1838. Dickens, Nich. Nick., xxiv. Hesitating between the respect he ought to assume, and his love of the whimsical.
† b. Subject to uncertainty or the ‘caprice of fortune,’ Obs.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 151. Must the bread of Life be ground only by the winde of every Doctrine? and whimsicall Wind-Mills?
1700. Congreve, Way of World, II. vii. A Fellow that lives in a Windmill has not a more whimsical Dwelling than the Heart of a Man that is lodg’d in a Woman. There is no Point of the Compass to which they cannot turn.
1716. Addison, Freeholder, No. 18 ¶ 3. I shall only take notice of the whimsical circumstances a people must lie under, who can be thus made poor or rich by an edict.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1768), III. 191. Poor man! he stands a whimsical chance between us.
B. sb. (in pl.) A cant name for a section of the Tories in the reign of Queen Anne: see quots.
1714. Swift, Pres. St. Aff., Wks. 1841, I. 492/2. That race of politicians, who in the cant phrase are called the whimsicals.
1818. Scott, Br. Lamm., xxvii. Many of the High Church party … affected to separate their principles from those of the Jacobites, and, on that account, obtained the denomination of Whimsicals.
