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🎀 Decorative or elaborate 😋 To want 💡 A liking 💭 To imagine 🦄 Imagination
to fancy

to fancy

38 4.4
To imagine something as possible
  • verb
  • /ˈfænsi/
: imaginarse
  • Like many Americans these days, I fancy myself a fairly adventurous cook.

She was pretty enough and she fancied herself as a like a model.

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Examples

  • Perry Smith... ...fancies himself an artiste.

    Infamous (2006)

  • Fancy a drink?

    Desired (2015)

  • I fancy you will be asked to leave the regiment.

    Anna Karenina (2012)

  • By the time the army moved on, Geoffrey fancied himself in love with her.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Of course, the United States has always fancied itself to be a bastion of free speech and unbridled expression.

    Academic text (2003)

  • Do you really fancy traveling to Paris next summer?

  • She fancy an idea for her new painting that she couldn't wait to start.

  • After discussing the project, he fancy that they could finish it ahead of schedule.

Synonyms

to figure
vsto fancy
∞ 3.8

To think about something to find an answer

focuses specifically on conceiving something as possible rather than on calculation
to see
vsto fancy
∞ 1.0

To picture something in your mind

emphasizes thinking of something as possible rather than merely picturing it
to picture
vsto fancy
366 2.9

To imagine how something looks

is used for conceiving possibility rather than making a visual image central
to project
vsto fancy
194 3.4

To estimate what will happen in the future

is about imagining possibility without implying planning or likelihood
to envision
vsto fancy
160 4.1

To picture something in your mind, often a possible future

is used for conceiving possibility at any time not only the future
to fantasize
vsto fancy
  • US
110 4.5

To imagine things that are not real because you want them

is about imagining something as possible rather than as unreal wishful thought
to visualize
vsto fancy
  • US
71 3.8

Form a clear picture of something in your mind

is about conceiving something as possible rather than focusing on visual detail
to envisage
vsto fancy
12 6.8

To form a picture in your mind of something not present

focuses on conceiving something as possible without stressing a visual image

Antonyms

to disbelieve
15 4.7

To not accept that something is true

Idioms

nothing fancy
19 2.7

Simple and plain without anything special or expensive

fancy as all get-out
  • Informal
1 9.9

Looks very expensive to impress people

to fancy one's chances
7.8

To think you will be successful in a situation

Phrasal Verbs

to fancy up
  • Informal
1 6.5

Make something look more stylish and attractive

Compounds

fancy restaurant
22 2.9

A restaurant with expensive food, a nice atmosphere, and very good service

fancy dress
  • UK
12 3.5

A costume people wear to hide who they are at a party

flight of fancy
  • Informal
8 7.4

An imaginative idea that is unlikely to be true or useful

fancy house
7 2.5

A large, expensive home with nice decorations

fancy man
  • UK
1 9.4

A man who is a woman's secret lover, not her husband

fancy woman
  • NSFW
1 9.5

A woman who has a sexual relationship with a man who supports her financially

fancy-dress ball
  • UK
1 7.0

A formal party where people wear costumes and masks and dance

fancy Dan
  • Offensive
1 9.9

A man who dresses and acts in a flashy way to attract attention

fancy goods
  • Archaic
1 4.1

Small decorative items often sold as gifts

fancy man
  • Offensive
1 9.9

A man who finds customers for prostitutes and takes their money

How Imagined

to envision
160 4.1
to visualize
  • US
71 3.8
to imagine
∞ 1.3
to fancy
38 4.4
to think
∞ 1.0
to suppose
∞ 2.7

Surface Forms

fancy infinitive
fancied past
fancied past participle
fancying present participle
fancies third person singular

Etymology

Fancy as a verb meaning 'to imagine' comes from the same old idea of phantasia or 'imagination', and it is the same root as fantasy. So, to fancy something is simply to picture it in your mind.