| English Dictionary |
FICKLE
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| IPA (US): |  |
Dictionary entry overview: What does fickle mean?
• FICKLE (adjective)
The adjective FICKLE has 2 senses:
1. marked by erratic changeableness in affections or attachments
2. liable to sudden unpredictable change
Familiarity information: FICKLE used as an adjective is rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Marked by erratic changeableness in affections or attachments
Synonyms:
fickle; volatile
Context example:
a flirt's volatile affections
Similar:
inconstant (likely to change frequently often without apparent or cogent reason; variable)
Derivation:
fickleness (unfaithfulness by virtue of being unreliable or treacherous)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Liable to sudden unpredictable change
Synonyms:
erratic; fickle; mercurial; quicksilver
Context example:
a quicksilver character, cool and willful at one moment, utterly fragile the next
Similar:
changeable; changeful (such that alteration is possible; having a marked tendency to change)
Derivation:
fickleness (unfaithfulness by virtue of being unreliable or treacherous)
Context examples
“False and fickle one!” said he.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
“Is he fickle? Oh, for shame! Did he sip every flower, and change every hour, until Polly his passion requited? Is her name Polly?”
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Many girls might have been taken in, for never were such attentions; but I knew the fickle sex too well.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
I would suppose him,—Oh, how gladly would I suppose him, only fickle, very, very fickle.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
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