First Known Use: 13th century
Dictionary
fickle
adjective fick·le \ˈfi-kəl\
: changing often
: changing opinions often
Full Definition of FICKLE
: marked by lack of steadfastness, constancy, or stability : given to erratic changeableness
— fick·le·ness noun
— fick·ly \ˈfi-k(ə-)lē\ adverb
See fickle defined for English-language learners
See fickle defined for kids
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Examples of FICKLE
- The Weak will suck up to the Strong, for fear of losing their jobs and their money and all the fickle power they wielded only twenty-four hours ago. —Hunter S. Thompson, Rolling Stone, 11 Nov. 2004
- The corporate fan who has replaced the core fan is a fickle beast, choosy about which games he'll use his precious free time to attend. —E. M. Swift, Sports Illustrated, 15 May 2000
- A failed play was a denial of what Odets was owed, for he was chasing the public no differently than did his bourgeois and nonrevolutionary contemporaries, a public as fickle as it always was and is. —Arthur Miller, Harper's, March 1999
- War is like hard-drug abuse or a fickle lover, an apparently contradictory bolt of compulsion, agony and ecstasy that draws you back in the face of better judgment time and time again. —Anthony Loyd, My War Gone By, 1999
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Origin of FICKLE
Middle English fikel deceitful, inconstant, from Old English ficol deceitful; akin to Old English befician to deceive, and probably to Old English fāh hostile — more at foe
Related to FICKLE
- Synonyms
- capricious, changeable, changeful, flickery, fluctuating, fluid, inconsistent, inconstant, mercurial, mutable, skittish, temperamental, uncertain, unpredictable, unsettled, unstable, unsteady, variable, volatile, up in the air
- Antonyms
- certain, changeless, constant, immutable, invariable, predictable, settled, stable, stationary, steady, unchangeable, unchanging, unvarying
Synonym Discussion of FICKLE
inconstant, fickle, capricious, mercurial, unstable mean lacking firmness or steadiness (as in purpose or devotion). inconstant implies an incapacity for steadiness and an inherent tendency to change <an inconstant friend>. fickle suggests unreliability because of perverse changeability and incapacity for steadfastness <performers discover how fickle fans can be>. capricious suggests motivation by sudden whim or fancy and stresses unpredictability <an utterly capricious critic>. mercurial implies a rapid changeability in mood <made anxious by her boss's mercurial temperament>. unstable implies an incapacity for remaining in a fixed position or steady course and applies especially to a lack of emotional balance <too unstable to hold a job>.
FICKLE Defined for Kids
fickle
adjective fick·le \ˈfi-kəl\
Definition of FICKLE for Kids
: changing often : not reliable <fickle friends> <fickle weather>
— fick·le·ness noun
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