capricious

ca·pri·cious

adjective \kə-ˈpri-shəs, -ˈprē-\

Definition of CAPRICIOUS

: governed or characterized by caprice : impulsive, unpredictable

— ca·pri·cious·ly adverb

— ca·pri·cious·ness noun

Examples of CAPRICIOUS

1. employees who are at the mercy of a capricious manager
2. The court ruled that the punishment was arbitrary and capricious.
3. … every balloon voyage is a race between capricious winds and the amount of fuel on board. —Tom Morganthau, Newsweek, 29 Mar. 1999
4. She is capricious, however, and is said to take bribes and wantonly peddle her influence from time to time. —Hunter S. Thompson, Rolling Stone, 15 Dec. 1994
5. Lady Luck is a capricious mother who, as in a recurrent nightmare, always offers, never comes through, and never stops smiling. —Hugh Drummond, Boston Magazine, November 1989
6. I don't believe in random occurrences or blind chance, though I know the patterns of this world are capricious and terribly complex. —Leslie Marmon Silko, letter, 21 Aug. 1979

Origin of CAPRICIOUS

(see caprice)

First Known Use: 1601

Related to CAPRICIOUS

Synonyms

fickle, changeable, changeful, flickery, fluctuating, fluid, inconsistent, inconstant, mercurial, mutable, skittish, temperamental, uncertain, unpredictable, unsettled, unstable, unsteady, variable, volatile

Antonyms

certain, changeless, constant, immutable, invariable, predictable, settled, stable, stationary, steady, unchangeable, unchanging, unvarying

Related Words

aimless, arbitrary, desultory, erratic, haphazard, hit-or-miss, irregular, random, scattered, slapdash, stray; ambivalent, hesitating, shaky, shilly-shally, shilly-shallying, vacillating, wavering; dicey, undependable, unreliable, untrustworthy; adaptable, mobile, protean, versatile

Near Antonyms

equable, even, uniform; abiding, durable, lasting, permanent, persistent; dependable, reliable, sure, tried, tried-and-true, true, trustworthy, trusty

See Synonym Discussion at inconstant

Rhymes with CAPRICIOUS

facetious