Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
fancy-free

fancy-free

6 6.8
Not having responsibilities or ties and free to do what you want
  • adjective
  • /ˈfæn.siˌfri/
translation icon : sin ataduras
  • I am footloose and fancy-free.
  • footloose and fancy-free
  • single and fancy-free

So if you're footloose and fancy free, you can even leverage it.

Examples

  • Footloose and fancy-free, that's my style.

    The Long Riders (1980)

  • Teachers I had... teachers who hardly knew me as we rarely spent more than 2 years in the same school, with the Navy keeping us footloose and fancy-free.

    Blog text (2)

  • I'm fancy free and free for anything fancy

    Top Hat (1935)

  • "I'm all alone and fancy-free

    Blues Brothers 2000 (1998)

  • Footloose and fancy-free, I go wherever I want.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • And, girls, he's unattached and fancy-free, so...

    Champion (1949)

  • What I wouldn't give to be young on the road... footloose and fancy-free.

    Doc Hollywood (1991)

  • She feels as if she's rooting around for some trapdoor into the life she's supposed to be living now: single, footloose, and fancy-free, that sort of thing.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • BEFORE I MET YOUR MOTHER, THERE I WAS A POOR, PITIFUL, PATHETIC BACHELOR WITH MY POCKETS FULL OF MONEY, NO OBLIGATIONS, NO RESPONSIBILITIES, FOOTLOOSE AND FANCY FREE.

    The 4 Points (2025)

  • It's easy to be fancy-free when you have no responsibilities.

Synonyms

carefree
vsfancy-free
41 2.9

Not feeling worried or responsible

focuses more on lacking commitments and attachments rather than only inner calm
footloose
vsfancy-free
1 6.9

Free to travel or live without many responsibilities

stresses absence of commitments and attachments rather than mainly physical mobility
heart-free
vsfancy-free
7.4

Does not feel strong love or worry

includes lack of responsibilities and commitments as well as emotional detachment

Antonyms

tied up
130 4.0

Busy with something and cannot do other things

burdened
3.8

Feeling very weighed down by work, problems, or responsibilities

How Carefree

fancy-free
6 6.8
carefree
41 2.9
lighthearted
17 3.7
easygoing
22 2.6
relaxed
241 1.0

Surface Forms

fancy-free positive

Morphology

fancy-free = fancy + free (semi-transparent) = fancy + free

The components 'fancy' and 'free' are visible and the compound literally suggests 'free from fancy' (historically 'free from romantic attachment'), but the modern generalized sense 'carefree' is a semantic extension that may not be fully predictable to all learners.

Etymology

Fancy-free joins fancy, meaning 'a sudden wish' or 'romantic idea', and free, meaning 'without'. That image of being 'without a fancy' helps you remember that fancy-free means having no commitments or attachments and feeling carefree.