The fancy, all of a class who exhibit and cultivate any peculiar taste
or fancy; hence, especially, sporting characters taken collectively, or
any specific class of them, as jockeys, gamblers, prize fighters, etc.
At a great book sale in London, which had congregated all the
fancy.
De Quincey.
Syn. -- Imagination; conceit; taste; humor; inclination; whim; liking.
See Imagination.
Fan"cy, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Fancied (?), p. pr. & vb. n. Fancying
(&?;).] 1. To figure to one's self; to believe or imagine something
without proof.
If our search has reached no farther than simile and metaphor, we
rather fancy than know.
Locke.