[a. (after 1660) F. caprice, It. capriccio: see CAPRICCIO, and CAPRICH, which both preceded this. About 1700 ca·price was a usual accentuation: Pope rhymed the word with vice.]
1. A sudden change or turn of the mind without apparent or adequate motive; a desire or opinion arbitrarily or fantastically formed; a freak, whim, mere fancy.
1667. G. Digby, Elvira, V. in Hazl., Dodsley, XV. 82. Dependent on the wild caprice of others.
1673. Dryden, Marr. à la Mode, IV. iv. 61. Rho.… Now have I the oddest thought…. Mel. This is the strangest caprice in you.
1727. Swift, Gulliver, III. ii. 192. The caprices of woman-kind are not limited by climate or nation.
1732. Pope, Ess. Man, II. 239. That counter-works each folly and caprice; That disappoints th’ effect of ev’ry vice.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. II. I. x. 146. He was liable to be removed … at the caprice of any church-warden.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng. (1858), I. ii. 120. The restraint which ordinary persons … are able to impose on their caprices.
b. The disposition of a mind subject to such humours; capriciousness.
1709. Pope, Ess. Crit., 287. Critics of less judgment than caprice.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 435, ¶ 1. The Folly, Extravagance, and Caprice of the present Age.
1728. Young, Love Fame, VII. 161. Say, Britain! whence this caprice of thy sons?
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 433. There was something appalling in the union of such boundless power and such boundless caprice.
c. transf. of things.
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. ii. 127. The vessel … left to the caprice of the winds and waves.
1793. T. Beddoes, Catarrh, 150. This caprice of our climate.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), I. iii. 136. By a caprice of language.
2. A work of irregular and sportive fancy.
1721. Bailey, Caprichio, Caprice … also a particular Piece of Musick, Painting and Poetry.
1838. Hallam, Hist. Lit., I. I. iii. § 82. 199. Extravagant combinations of fancy, caprices rapid and sportive as the animal from which they take their name.
b. Music. = CAPRICCIO 3 b.
1879. E. Prout, in Grove, Dict. Mus., s.v., Capriccio, In the present day the word CAPRICE is usually … applied to a piece of music constructed either on original subjects, and frequently in a modified sonata- or rondo-form (as in Mendelssohn’s ‘Three Caprices,’ op. 33, or Sterndale Bennett’s Caprice in E), or to a brilliant transcription of one or more subjects by other composers.
3. A kind of scarf so called.
1838. Workwoman’s Guide, A kind of scarf made of broad ribbon, and called a caprice.
