fickle
adjectiveverbattested in dialogue
- //ˈfɪk.əl//
Quick to change one’s opinion or allegiance; insincere; not loyal or reliable.
adjective
- 1
Quick to change one’s opinion or allegiance; insincere; not loyal or reliable.
O Fortune, Fortune, all men call thee fickle, / If thou art fickle, what doſt thou with him / That is renown'd for faith? be fickle Fortune: / For then I hope thou wilt not keepe him long, / But ſend him backe.
Still onward winds the dreary way; I with it; for I long to prove No lapse of moons can canker Love, Whatever fickle tongues may say.
As night has such a local ring / And love and rock are fickle things
- 2
figurativeChangeable.
fickle breeze
fickle stock market
2014, Paul Salopek, Blessed. Cursed. Claimed., National Geographic (December 2014)https://web.archive.org/web/20150212214621/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/12/pilgrim-roads/salopek-text To the south, the vast geometrical deserts of Arabian nomads, a redoubt of feral movement, of fickle winds, of open space, of saddle leather—home to the wild Bedouin tribes.
Etymology
From Middle English fikil, fikel, from Old English ficol (“fickle, cunning, tricky, deceitful”), equivalent to fike + -le. More at fike.
verb
- 1
To deceive, flatter.
- 2
To puzzle, perplex, nonplus.
Etymology
From Middle English fikelen, from fikel (“fickle”); see above. Cognate with Low German fikkelen (“to deceive, flatter”), German ficklen, ficheln (“to deceive, flatter”).
Forms
- comparative
- fickler, more fickle
- superlative
- ficklest, most fickle
- past tense
- fickled
- past participle
- fickled
- present participle
- fickling
- third person singular
- fickles
fickle · Quick to change one’s opinion or allegiance; insincere; not loyal or reliable.
Fickle · A surname.fiction · Literary type using invented or imaginative writing, instead…fictional · Invented, as opposed to real.