fancied

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of fancy.

   As children, they fancied themselves great explorers of distant lands.

   For a moment she fancied she could hear the sea.

   Note

   One spelling covers both past forms of the verb: she fancied (simple past) and she has fancied (participle), with the y of fancy turning to i before -ed. Its range matches the verb's. The dated "imagine, suppose" sense appears in fancied themselves explorers, and the British "would like" sense in fancied a quiet house. The adjectives grow from the participle, among them the "imaginary" meaning.

2. 2
   adjective

   Liked, desired, or regarded as a favorite, as a contender widely expected to do well.

   The fancied candidate withdrew just days before the election.

   Among the fancied contenders, only one reached the final round.

   Similarfavored, preferred, backed

   Oppositeunfancied, unfavored

   Note

   The liking usually belongs to other people, often a crowd of forecasters. Sports writing keeps this sense busiest, typically with an intensifier. Graham Bean, reporting Scotland's 2021 win at Twickenham, calls England "the highly fancied hosts". Highly fancied means widely expected to win, so the phrase often sets up an upset. Use it of contenders and candidates. For a purely personal favorite, favorite itself is plainer.

3. 3
   adjective

   Existing only in the imagination; imaginary or imagined rather than real.

   She brushed aside her fancied worries about the long journey.

   The patient kept describing fancied illnesses that no doctor could find.

   Similarimaginary, imagined, illusory, unreal, supposed

   Oppositereal, actual, genuine

   Note

   Imagination is the fancy behind this sense: the verb fancy, "to imagine, suppose", plus -ed. Hobbes in 1651 sets a "fancyed Voice" beside images "formed in the Fancy", where the noun still meant the mind's picture-making itself. Its natural partner is resemblance. A plant named for its fancied resemblance to a spear looks like one only to whoever named it. Notional and fanciful are near neighbors, but fancied implies that someone did the imagining.

4. 4
   adjective

   Arranged, or especially in the case of attire designed, to suit one's own taste or whim.

   The fancied costumes drew every eye at the masked ball.

   She wore a fancied gown trimmed with lace and colored ribbons.

   Similarelaborate, ornate, custom

   Oppositeplain, simple

   Note

   Here the stress falls on choice rather than invention: a fancied thing is real, but shaped by someone's preference instead of by rule or need. Matthew Prior shows the edge this can carry in 1688, setting "fancy'd Rules" beside "Arbitrary Laws." That is how to tell it from the "imaginary" meaning: imagined things do not exist, while fancied rules exist and simply answer to whim. It takes no comparative.

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