Capriccio
(||Ca*pric"cio) n. [It. See Caprice.]
1. (Mus.) A piece in a free form, with frequent digressions from the theme; a fantasia; often called
caprice.
2. A caprice; a freak; a fancy. Shak.
Capriccioso
(||Ca*pric*cio"so) a. [It.] (Mus) In a free, fantastic style.
Caprice
(Ca*price") n. [F. caprice, It. capriccio, caprice (perh. orig. a fantastical goat leap), fr. L.
caper, capra, goat. Cf Capriole, Cab, Caper, v. i.]
1. An abrupt change in feeling, opinion, or action, proceeding from some whim or fancy; a freak; a notion.
"Caprices of appetite." W. Irving.
2. (Mus.) See Capriccio.
Syn. Freak; whim; crotchet; fancy; vagary; humor; whimsey; fickleness.
Capricious
(Ca*pri"cious) a. [Cf. F. capricieux, It. capriccioso.] Governed or characterized by caprice; apt
to change suddenly; freakish; whimsical; changeable. "Capricious poet." Shak. "Capricious humor." Hugh
Miller.
A capricious partiality to the Romish practices.
Hallam.
Syn. Freakish; whimsical; fanciful; fickle; crotchety; fitful; wayward; changeable; unsteady; uncertain; inconstant; arbitrary.
Ca*pri"cious*ly, adv. Ca*pri"cious*ness, n.
Capricorn
(Cap"ri*corn) n. [L. capricornus; caper goat + cornu horn: cf. F. capricorne.]
1. (Astron.) The tenth sign of zodiac, into which the sun enters at the winter solstice, about December
21. See Tropic.
The sun was entered into Capricorn.
Dryden.
2. (Astron.) A southern constellation, represented on ancient monuments by the figure of a goat, or a
figure with its fore part like a fish.