fancy

«fancy» in Mova's school dictionary: decorated, special or expensive, not plain — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective (fancy, fancier, fanciest); verb (fancy, fancies, fancied, fancying); noun (a fancy, fancies)

meaning for a pupil

1) Fancy means decorated, special or expensive, not plain. tree →

2) In British, Australian and Irish English, to fancy something is to want it or like the idea of it: «Do you fancy a biscuit?» tree →

3) To fancy someone is to have a crush on them. tree →

4) A fancy is a liking or an idea in your head; «take a fancy to» means start to like. tree →

5) Fancy is an exclamation of surprise meaning "just imagine!" tree →

sense in the lessons

In everyday life fancy clothes, fancy cakes and fancy restaurants are for special occasions; a fancy-dress party is a costume party (UK). In maths, «fancy» is never needed; a plain method is fine. Phrases: «fancy dress», «Do you fancy...?», «take a fancy to», «nothing fancy», «Fancy that!» (how surprising).

examples

• She wore a fancy dress with sparkles to the wedding. tree →
• Do you fancy a game of football? tree →
• We went to a fancy-dress party as pirates. tree →
• The cake had fancy icing on top. tree →
• Nothing fancy, just a sandwich, please. tree →
• The cat took a fancy to my new jumper. tree →
• Fancy meeting you here! tree →
• Fancy my being afraid of a lion! tree →

note

Spelling: fancier, fanciest, fancies, fancied (y to i). «Fancy dress» in the UK means a costume, not a smart dress; Americans say «costume party». «Fancy» meaning «want» is less common in the USA.

In the corpora

• Teachers know how their pupils usually write, so a sudden fancy style stands out.
• Fancy goldfish with bubble eyes, puffy heads or double tails were bred by people, and some swim slowly or see badly.
• The Gryphon chuckles: it's all her fancy, «they never executes nobody».
• I like your spirit.» Toad starts slowly and carefully, and the gentlemen clap: fancy a washerwoman driving so well!
• Speaking loudly and clearly enough for the back row matters more than fancy words; this is called projecting your voice.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «fancy» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.