Crossword clues for fickle
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Fickle \Fic"kle\, a. [OE. fikel untrustworthy, deceitful, AS.
ficol, fr. fic, gefic, fraud, deceit; cf. f[=a]cen deceit,
OS. f?kn, OHG. feichan, Icel. feikn portent. Cf. Fidget.]
Not fixed or firm; liable to change; unstable; of a
changeable mind; not firm in opinion or purpose; inconstant;
capricious; as, Fortune's fickle wheel.
--Shak.
They know how fickle common lovers are.
--Dryden.
Syn: Wavering; irresolute; unsettled; vacillating; unstable; inconsonant; unsteady; variable; mutable; changeful; capricious; veering; shifting.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
c.1200, "false, treacherous, deceptive, deceitful, crafty" (obsolete), probably from Old English ficol "deceitful, cunning, tricky," related to befician "deceive," and to facen "deceit, treachery; blemish, fault." Common Germanic (compare Old Saxon fekan "deceit," Old High German feihhan "deceit, fraud, treachery"), from PIE *peig- (2) "evil-minded, treacherous, hostile" (see foe).\n
\nSense of "changeable, inconstant, unstable" is from c.1300 (especially of Fortune and women). Related: Fickleness. Fickly (c.1300) is rare or obsolete. Also with a verb form in Middle English, fikelen "to deceive, flatter," later "to puzzle, perplex," which survived long enough in Northern dialects to get into Scott's novels. Fikel-tonge (late 14c.) was an allegorical or character name for "one who speaks falsehoods."\n\n
Wiktionary
Etymology 1
-
1 Quick to change one’s opinion or allegiance; insincere; not loyal or reliable. 2 (label en figurative) changeable Etymology 2
v
1 (label en transitive) To deceive, flatter. 2 (label en transitive UK dialectal) To puzzle, perplex, nonplus.
WordNet
adj. marked by erratic changeableness in affections or attachments; "fickle friends"; "a flirt's volatile affections" [syn: volatile]
liable to sudden unpredictable change; "erratic behavior"; "fickle weather"; "mercurial twists of temperament"; "a quicksilver character, cool and willful at one moment, utterly fragile the next" [syn: erratic, mercurial, quicksilver(a)]
Wikipedia
Fickle or fickleness may refer to:
- the quality of faithlessness
- Fickle, Indiana
Usage examples of "fickle".
Only noblemen possess the finesse and acuity required to learn the skills of governing eotaurs and the fickle currents of the atmosphere.
When it came I resolved to bid farewell to all my friends and to try my fortune in Lisbon, but such was not the fate which the fickle goddess had assigned to me.
The lists of cannons, guns, and arms of all kinds in the inventories of the Chaco towns, preserved by Brabo, serve to show not only the dangers to which the Jesuits were exposed, but also how thoroughly the Jesuits understood the fickle nature of those with whom they lived.
I am of opinion that the only foreboding in which man can have any sort of faith is the one which forbodes evil, because it comes from the mind, while a presentiment of happiness has its origin in the heart, and the heart is a fool worthy of reckoning foolishly upon fickle fortune.
Chance is a curious and fickle element, but it often has the greatest influence on our lives.
Sometimes he would even inveigh against her, and call her a fickle, ungrateful girl, capable of no strong passion but vanity.
Our Leman winds are fickle friends, and the wise take them while in the humor.
I wad maybe be a wee thing fickled if an easterly haar came down on us, but still I think I micht smell my way in there in ony weather.
Two pronunciamientos, rudely printed and posted in the Plaza, and saluted by the fickle garrison of one hundred men, who had, however, immediately reappointed their old commander as Generalissimo under the new regime, seemed to leave nothing to be desired.
Thus she denounced Her ancient, fickle worshippers, who left Her altars desecrate, her fires unfed, Her name forgotten.
When it came I resolved to bid farewell to all my friends and to try my fortune in Lisbon, but such was not the fate which the fickle goddess had assigned to me.
She was fickle in her moods, perhaps from being caught between Catharina and Maria Thins for so many years.
This in itself was enough to sadden me, for without the favours of the fickle goddess life was not worth living, for me at all events.
Earth lasts for only about four million years, so if you wish to be around for billions of years, you must be as fickle as the atoms that made you.
Thou seest he has but to speak, and his breath agitates these fickle fools as easily as the whirlwind catcheth scattered straws, and sweeps them together, or disperses them at its pleasure.