\Fan"ci*ful\, a.
1. Full of fancy; guided by fancy, rather than by reason and
   experience; whimsical; as, a fanciful man forms visionary
   projects.
2. Conceived in the fancy; not consistent with facts or
   reason; abounding in ideal qualities or figures; as, a
   fanciful scheme; a fanciful theory.
3. Curiously shaped or constructed; as, she wore a fanciful
   headdress.
         Gather up all fancifullest shells.    --Keats.
Syn: Imaginative; ideal; visionary; capricious; chimerical;
     whimsical; fantastical; wild.
Usage: {Fanciful}, {Fantastical}, {Visionary}. We speak of
       that as fanciful which is irregular in taste and
       judgment; we speak of it as fantastical when it
       becomes grotesque and extravagant as well as
       irregular; we speak of it as visionary when it is
       wholly unfounded in the nature of things. Fanciful
       notions are the product of a heated fancy, without any
       tems are made up of oddly assorted fancies, aften of
       the most whimsical kind; visionary expectations are
       those which can never be realized in fact. --
       {Fan"ci*ful*ly}, adv. -{Fan"ci*ful*ness}, n.