Adjacent Words

Vagary definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

VAGA'RY, n. [L. vagus, wandering.] A wandering of the thoughts; a wild freak; a whim; a whimsical purpose.
They chang'd their minds, flew off, and into strange vagaries fell.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: an unexpected and inexplicable change in something (in a situation or a person's behavior, etc.); "the vagaries of the weather"; "his wealth fluctuates with the vagaries of the stock market"; "he has dealt with human vagaries for many years"

Merriam Webster's

noun (plural -ries) Etymology: probably from Latin vagari to wander, from vagus wandering Date: 1579 an erratic, unpredictable, or extravagant manifestation, action, or notion Synonyms: see caprice

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. (pl. -ies) a caprice; an eccentric idea or act (the vagaries of Fortune). Derivatives: vagarious adj. Etymology: L vagari wander

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Vagary Va*ga"ry, n.; pl. Vagaries. [L. vagari to stroll about. See Vague.] 1. A wandering or strolling. [Obs.] 2. Hence, a wandering of the thoughts; a wild or fanciful freak; a whim; a whimsical purpose. ``The vagaries of a child.'' --Spectator. They changed their minds, Flew off, and into strange vagaries fell. --Milton.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(vagaries) Vagaries are unexpected and unpredictable changes in a situation or in someone's behaviour which you have no control over. (FORMAL) ...the perplexing vagaries of politics. N-COUNT: usu pl, usu N of n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Whim, freak, whimsey, crotchet, whimsicality, caprice, fancy, humor.

Moby Thesaurus

aberration, bee, boutade, brainstorm, capriccio, caprice, circuitousness, conceit, crank, craze, crazy idea, crosswiseness, crotchet, daydream, declination, deflection, deflexure, deviance, deviation, deviousness, diagonality, digression, divagation, divergence, dream, excursion, fad, fancy, fantastic notion, fantasy, flimflam, fool notion, freak, freakish inspiration, harebrained idea, humor, indirection, indirectness, kink, maggot, megrim, nonconformity, notion, obliqueness, obliquity, passing fancy, quirk, skewness, squint, toy, transverseness, whim, whim-wham, whimsy