Language:
Free Online Dictionary|3Dict

Finicalness

Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Finical \Fin"i*cal\, a. [From {Fine}, a.]
   Affectedly fine; overnice; unduly particular; fastidious.
   ``Finical taste.'' --Wordsworth.

         The gross style consists in giving no detail, the
         finical in giving nothing else.          --Hazlitt.

   Syn: {Finical}, {Spruce}, {Foppish}.

   Usage: These words are applied to persons who are studiously
          desirous to cultivate finery of appearance. One who is
          spruce is elaborately nice in dress; one who is
          finical shows his affectation in language and manner
          as well as in dress; one who is foppish distinguishes
          himself by going to the extreme of the fashion in the
          cut of his clothes, by the tawdriness of his
          ornaments, and by the ostentation of his manner. ``A
          finical gentleman clips his words and screws his body
          into as small a compass as possible, to give himself
          the air of a delicate person; a spruce gentleman
          strives not to have a fold wrong in his frill or
          cravat, nor a hair of his head to lie amiss; a foppish
          gentleman seeks . . . to render himself distinguished
          for finery.'' --Crabb. -- {Fin"i*cal*ly}, adv. --
          {Fin"i*cal*ness}, n.
Sort by alphabet : A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z