Meaning of fancy in English

fancy

verb

/ˈfæn.si/ us

/ˈfæn.si/

fancy verb (LIKE)

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B1 [ T ] UK

to want to have or do something:

Do you fancy a drink this evening?

[ + -ing verb ] I didn't fancy swimming in that water.

B2 [ T ] UK informal

to be sexually attracted to someone:

He could tell she fancied him.

fancy yourself UK disapproving

to think you are very attractive or important:

That Dave really fancies himself, doesn't he?

You could tell by the way they strutted around how much they fancied themselves.

Look at this photo from our teens. We really fancied ourselves, didn't we?

At that time, he was dating a girl who really fancied herself.

Chrissie's husband really fancies himself, doesn't he?

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Do you fancy coming on a day trip to Bath next Saturday?
Do you fancy going out for a meal after work?
What shall we do foodwise - do you fancy going out to eat?
I thought he fancied me, but I'd completely misread the signals.
She knew he fancied her, but preferred to keep their relationship platonic.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Wanting things

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Showing arrogance and conceit

fancy verb (IMAGINE)

[ I or T ] UK

to imagine or think that something is so:

He fancies himself as a bit of a singer.

[ + to infinitive ] Who do you fancy to win the Cup this year?

[ + (that) ] literary I fancied (that) I saw something moving in the corner.

old-fashioned This isn't the first time this has happened, I fancy.

fancy! C2 old-fashioned

an expression of surprise:

Fancy seeing you here!

"They have eight children." "Fancy that (= how surprising)!"

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Imagining and conceiving

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Expressions of surprise

Idiom

fancy someone's chances

fancy

adjective

/ˈfæn.si/ us

/ˈfæn.si/

fancy adjective (DECORATIVE)

decorative or complicated:

I wanted a simple black dress, nothing fancy.

The decorations were a little too fancy for my tastes.

fancy cakes

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Complexity

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fancy adjective (EXPENSIVE)

informal

expensive:

We stayed in a fancy hotel near the Champs-Élysées.

a fancy restaurant

Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples

costing a lot of money

expensiveHe thinks he's special with his expensive suits and fancy shoes.
dearUK I find the veg too dear in that supermarket.
costlyThey made several costly mistakes, including spending $60 million on shoddy machinery.
priceyThe restaurants in town are a bit pricey.
exclusiveThey have an apartment in an exclusive part of town.

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SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Expensive & luxurious

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fancy

noun

/ˈfæn.si/ us

/ˈfæn.si/

fancy noun (THING/PERSON YOU LIKE)

passing fancy

something that you like very much for a short period:

But for me, parachuting was no passing fancy.

take a fancy to something/someone

to start liking something or someone very much:

Laura's taken a fancy to Japanese food.

take/tickle your fancy informal (also US strike your fancy)

If something takes/tickles your fancy, you like it and want to have or do it:

I looked in a lot of clothes shops but nothing really tickled my fancy.

fancy noun (IMAGINATION)

[ U ] literary

the imagination

See

flight of fancy

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Imagining and conceiving

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Ideas, concepts and theories

(Definition of fancy from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

fancy | American Dictionary

fancy

adjective [ -er/-est only ]

/ˈfæn·si/

fancy adjective [-er/-est only] (DECORATIVE)

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decorative or complicated, or (of restaurants, stores, or hotels) expensive:

I wanted a simple black dress, nothing fancy.

a fancy hotel

fancy

noun [ U ]

/ˈfæn·si/

something that you like very much:

What's your fancy?

Idiom

strike your fancy

fancy

verb [ T ]

/ˈfæn·si/

fancy verb [T] (IMAGINE)

to imagine or think that something is so:

When she was young she fancied herself a rebel.

fancy verb [T] (LIKE)

to like or wish for:

There are two things he fancies – fast cars and thunderous music.

(Definition of fancy from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of fancy

fancy

A fancy procedure and pretty pictures are not needed, critics will add, to know that brain activity differs between the two groups.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Some of them, by the accidents of his reading, loomed out in his fancy disproportionately large by comparison with the rest.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

We must remember that masque performances were great occasions, replete with distractions - royalty, nobility, fancy dress, beautiful women, glorious jewellery.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The most obvious characteristic of mainpiece opera up to 1695 is fancy staging.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Is a man in uniform a policeman or a guest at a fancy dress party?

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The constraint is that the binary tree should be atiguously marked, a fancy name for a non-contiguous marking.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

A fancy term, it means nothing more at this point than the pervasive concept of the human person.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Imaginative fancy or indirect knowledge was rarely enough.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The films were superficial and huge sums of money were spent on fancy mechanisms, like animatronics.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Muddling through this century, however, we find that the 'conservation ethic' has often been eclipsed by a predilection for fancy 'conservation tools'.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The old woman would not listen to such fancy stuff.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

We may fancy an exotic past that contrasts with a humdrum or unhappy present, but we forge it with modern tools.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Rethinking a classic doesn't mean gussying it up with fancy folderol and extraneous trimming so that it no longer bears any resemblance to the original.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Such analyses were dangerously susceptible of countenancing individual fancy, undermining a national church.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

For him, the landscape was not a fancy to be admired and 'observed'.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

What is the pronunciation of fancy?