a. Also 7 -ichious, -itious. [ad. F. capricieux, ad. It. capriccioso (= Sp. caprichoso): see above. The by-form caprichious belongs to the corresp. forms of the sb.]
† 1. Characterized by play of wit or fancy; humorous, fantastic, ‘conceited.’ Obs.
1594. Carew, Huarte’s Exam. Wits, 153 (L.). The inventive wits are termed in the Tuscan tongue capricious (capriciuso) for the resemblance they bear to a goat, who takes no pleasure in the open and easy plains, but loves to caper along the hill-tops.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., III. iii. 8. I am heere with thee, and thy Goats, as the most capricious Poet honest Ouid was among the Gothes.
1711. Shaftesb., Charac. (1737), III. 142. The capricious Point, and Play of Words.
2. Full of, subject to, or characterized by caprice; guided by whim or fancy rather than by judgment or settled purpose; whimsical, humorsome.
1605. Camden, Rem., Epitaphes, 57. A friend of his that knew him to be Caprichious.
1644. Eng. Tears, in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), V. 450. The monstrous exorbitant liberty, that almost every capricious mechanick takes to himself.
1753. Johnson, Adventurer, No. 111, ¶ 6. Our estimation of birth is arbitrary and capricious.
1833. J. Rennie, Alph. Angling, 49. ‘We have known the salmon,’ says another intelligent writer, ‘as well as trout, so capricious, as often to prefer a fancy fly.’
1884. Law Times Rep., L. 10 May, 325/1. The defendants’ refusal was not capricious, but a bonâ fide exercise of their judgment.
3. transf. Of things: Subject to change or irregularity, so as to appear ungoverned by law.
1823. Lamb, Elia, Ser. II. vii. (1865), 283. The capricious hues of the sea, shifting like the colours of a dying mullet.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol. (1875), II. II. xlix. 617. The capricious distribution of coral reefs.
1874. Helps, Soc. Press., vi. 75. The vicissitudes of a capricious climate.
1875. Tait & Stewart, Unseen Univ., iv. § 118. 95. To give to the atoms a perfectly arbitrary and capricious side movement.
