Forms: 1 ficol, 3–4 fik-, 4 fick-, 4–6 fyck-, 5–6 fek-, fykel(e, -ell(e, -il(l, -kil(l, -le, -ul, -yl(l, 3 south. vikel, 7 ficle, 6– fickle. [OE. ficol, f. *fic-ian to deceive (cf. befician in same sense), cognate with ȝefic deceit, fǽcne deceitful: see FAKEN a.]
† 1. False, deceitful, treacherous. Obs.
a. 1000. Gloss. on Prov. xiv. 25 (Cott. Vesp. D. 6). Versipellls, ficol vel pretti.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 268. Fikele & swikele reades.
a. 1240. Ureisun, in Cott. Hom., 185. Cunfort on eorþe þet is fikel and fals.
c. 1300. Havelok, 2799.
| We hauen misdo mikel, | |
| Þat we ayen you haue be fikel. |
c. 1325. Song Yesterday, 30, in E. E. P. (1862). 134.
| Þis eorþeli ioie þis worldly blis | |
| Is but a fykel fantasy. |
c. 1400. Song Roland, 147.
| ‘A! ffals man,’ quod the kinge, ‘Fekill is thy thought, | |
| Full of the foule gost thou fenyst þe nought.’ |
c. 1425. Seven Sag., 985 (P.).
| Thus schaltou be clovyd alse | |
| With fykyl wordis and with false. |
c. 1450. Lonelich, Grail, xlvi. 40. Kyng Crwdelx was so fekel and felle.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546), X viij. Otherwyse theyr conuersacion shulde be fekyl to the people.
absol. c. 1440. Bone Flor., 2184.
| I meene be thes four fekyll, | |
| That harmed feyre Florence so mykyll. |
b. Of places: Treacherous, dangerous. Now Sc.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIX. cxxix. (1495), 938. Actus is a place there beestys ben ofte dryuen and is slypper and fyckyl.
1883. Mrs. Oliphant, The Ladies Lindores, II. xvi. 41. It’s a fickle corner in the dark…. A wrang step, a bit swing out on the open, and there would be no help for ye.
2. Changeable, changeful, inconstant, uncertain, unreliable:
a. of persons, their attributes, feelings, etc.; also often, with personification, of Fortune, Chance, etc.
a. 1275. The Proverbs of Ælfred, 355, in O. E. Misc., 125. For moni mon hauit fikil mod.
1550. Bale, Apol., Pref., 12 b. I maruele what hath moued the fyckle heades of our doctours, so earnestly to mayntayne a matter by their doctrin, of so moch mischefe.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., III. v. 60.
| Jul. O fortune, fortune! all men call thee fickle: | |
| If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him | |
| That is renown’d for faith? Be fickle, fortune: | |
| For then, I hope, thou wilt not keep him long, | |
| But send him back. |
1630. Prynne, Anti-Armin., 114. It makes the fickle wauering, and vnconstant will of man, the very basis and groundworke of all Gods immutable, and aeternall Decrees concerning man.
1663. Cowley, Agric., Wks. 1710, II. 707–8. Here Pleasure looks (methinks) like a beautiful, constant, and modest Wife; it is there an impudent, fickle, and painted Harlot.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 233.
| When everlasting Fate shall yeild | |
| To fickle Chance, and Chaos judge the strife. |
1783. R. Watson, Philip III. (1793), II. VI. 164. Though sovereign princes, from the supereminence of their stations, be naturally capricious and fickle in their attachments.
1814. Scott, Ld. of Isles, VI. vi. Versed in the fickle heart of man.
1861. J. G. Holland, Lessons in Life, ii. 44. Friends have proved false, and fortune fickle.
1870. Bryant, Iliad, I. III. 85.
| The younger men are of a fickle mood; | |
| But when an elder shares the act he looks | |
| Both to the past and future, and provides | |
| What is most fitting and the best for all. |
b. of things, natural agents, etc.
c. 1450. Henryson, Compl. Creseide, 550. I … clame upon the fickill quheill sa hie.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XII. i. 106.
| Behald the chance of batale variabill, | |
| Persave of weir the fykkill ward onstabill! |
1563. B. Googe, Eglogs. etc. (Arb.), 84.
| The safest meanes | |
| to shun all stryfe: | |
| The surest Staffe, | |
| in fyckle Dayes. |
c. 1600. Shaks., Sonnet cxxvi.
| O thou my louely Boy who in thy power, | |
| Doest hould times fickle glasse, his sickle, hower: | |
| Who hast by wayning growne, and therein shou’st, | |
| Thy louers withering, as thy sweet selfe grow’st. |
1612. Davies, A Discoery of the True Causes Why Ireland Was Never Entirely Subdued, etc. (1747), 15. As the conquest was but slight and superficial, so the Pope’s donation, and the Irish submissions, were but weak and fickle assurances.
1774. Beattie, Minstr., II. lv.
| His mind discloses: Fancy now no more | |
| Wantons on fickle pinion through the skies; | |
| But, fix’d in aim, and conscious of her power, | |
| Sublime from cause to cause exults to rise, | |
| Creation’s blended stores arranging as she flies. |
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, i. He who embarks on that fickle sea, requires to possess the skill of the pilot.
1835. Ure, Philos. Manuf., 398. The fickle health of childhood.
a. 1839. Praed, Poems (1864), I. 234, ‘To ——,’ iii.
| And thus, as on through shine and shower | |
| My fickle shallop dances, | |
| And trembles at all storms that lower, | |
| And courts all summer glances. |
1861. J. G. Holland, Lessons in Life, i. 12. There is no water except when it rains, and the weather being very fickle, it is never known when there will be water.
3. As adv.; only in combination with ppl. adjs.
c. 1611. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. IV. The Decay, 1198.
| Th’ Almighty sports him with our Crowns and us; | |
| Our glorie stands so fickle-founded thus | |
| On slipperie wheels, alreadie rowling down: | |
| Hee give us not, but only shews the Crown. |
1596. Fitz-Geffray, Sir F. Drake (1881), 54.
| Fortvne her selfe was present in the fleete, | |
| But stoode not on her fickle-rowling wheele; | |
| Constant stabilitie ballassed her feete, | |
| And being constant knew not how to reele, | |
| But ruled the rudder and direct’d the keele. |
4. Comb., as fickle-fancied, -headed, -minded (whence fickle-mindedly adv.) adjs.; ficklewise adv.; also fickle-tongue a., given to falsehood; † fickle-hammed a., ? weak in the hams.
a. 1670. Hacket, Abp. Williams, I. (1692), 41. Those *fickle-fancy’d Men, whose Friendships will hold no longer than Pliny’s Peaches, after they are gathered.
1675. Lond. Gaz., No. 993/4. A Red Roan Nag about six, and *fickle hammed.
1587. Harrison, England, II. vii. (1877), I. 168. No forme of apparell liketh vs longer than the first garment is in the wearing, if it continue so long, and be not laid aside to receiue some other trinket newlie deuised by the *fickle headed tailors, who couet to haue seuerall trickes in cutting, thereby to draw fond customers to more expense of monie.
1661. Hickeringill, Jamaica, 97. Nor were those fickle-headed Souldiers soon invited to rise in Arms with them, but they sooner deserted them: leaving them to the Mercy of their Opponents Court-Mashalls, who presently doom’d them, to be shot to death.
a. 1600. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., VI. (1617), 280. Saith Tertullian, speaking of *fickle-minded-men.
1875. W. D. Howells, Foregone Concl., iii. 68. I’ve behaved rather *fickle-mindedly—for a representative of the country.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. III. 6. Boþe fals and fauel · and *fykel-tonge lyere.
1877. S. Lanier, Poems, The Bee, 9.
| Tara! it twanged, tara-tara! it blew, | |
| Yet wavered oft, and flew | |
| Most *ficklewise about, or here, or there, | |
| A music now from earth and now from air. |
