capriciousness

2 definitions found

capriciousness - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Capricious \Ca*pri"cious\ (k[.a]*pr[i^]sh"[u^]s), a. [Cf. F.
     capricieux, It. capriccioso.]
     Governed or characterized by caprice; apt to change suddenly;
     freakish; whimsical; changeable. "Capricious poet." --Shak.
     "Capricious humor." --Hugh Miller.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           A capricious partiality to the Romish practices.
                                                    --Hallam.
  
     Syn: Freakish; whimsical; fanciful; fickle; crotchety;
          fitful; wayward; changeable; unsteady; uncertain;
          inconstant; arbitrary. -- Ca*pri"cious*ly, adv. --
          Ca*pri"cious*ness, n.
          [1913 Webster]

capriciousness - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  capriciousness
      n 1: the quality of being guided by sudden unpredictable
           impulses [syn: capriciousness, unpredictability]
      2: the trait of acting unpredictably and more from whim or
         caprice than from reason or judgment; "I despair at the
         flightiness and whimsicality of my memory" [syn:
         flightiness, arbitrariness, whimsicality, whimsy,
         whimsey, capriciousness]