fickle

fick·le

adjective \ˈfi-kəl\

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

Examples of FICKLE

1. He blames poor sales on fickle consumers.
2. <a fickle friendship that was on and off over the years>
3. 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
4. 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
5. 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
6. 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

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

First Known Use: 13th century

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

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 FICKLE

brickle, chicle, mickle, nickel, pickle, prickle, sickle, stickle, tical, tickle, trickle