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1(of a person or their thoughts and ideas) overimaginative and unrealistic.
‘a fanciful story about a pot of gold’
‘Is it really so fanciful to expect coffee shops and bars to provide internet access on the house?’
‘He is less imaginative or fanciful than Tom, but more practical.’
‘The idea of a team made up of footballers who could play anywhere, moving around the pitch as the game and their colleagues demanded, now seems quaint and fanciful.’
‘He'd always said such things like that, always so fanciful and imaginative with an underlying tone of seriousness.’
‘Okay, so admittedly that may be a fanciful and unrealistic goal.’
‘the Moon Maiden is one of a number of fanciful lunar inhabitants’
‘And I think you never outgrow your love for those imaginative, fanciful, farfetched, fantastic characters and situations.’
‘During their mission, they encounter all kinds of bizarre and fanciful creatures.’
‘Paintings of original and fanciful snowmen are one favorite, and winter trees or landscapes are another.’
‘The judge said the two men lived in a ‘strange and fanciful world’ where they thought they could ‘ride around in cars, armed to the hilt’.’
‘In this way I made bright many linens to cover the holy books, and made for myself gay designs of fanciful beasts and birds upon my gowns and sashes.’
1.2Designed to be exotically ornamental rather than practical.
‘fanciful bonnets’
‘The new place is colourful and inviting, as sunflower-yellow walls help to show off Obadia's collection of colourful wall hangings, photographs, ornamental pots and fanciful souvenirs.’
‘The living room is the most fanciful; its highly abstract designs interspersed with some identifiable birds and the occasional flower.’
‘They made fanciful designs with dots, lines and geometric patterns on walls, antlers and other things.’
‘The fountain illustrated, an exquisite piece of Gothic architecture in miniature, was designed to be both fanciful and functional.’
‘Wu Bing designed wonderful costumes, from semi-traditional to fanciful, while the lighting was minimal, sets almost nonexistent, and most of the music American.’