Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Highly improbable or illusory.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Pertaining to or of the nature of a chimera; wholly imaginary; unreal; fantastic.
- Incapable of realization; fantastically imaginative; preposterous: as, chimerical ideas, notions, projects, or fancies.
- Given to or entertaining chimeras or fantastic ideas or projects: as, a chimerical enthusiast; the work of a chimerical brain.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Merely imaginary; fanciful; fantastic; wildly or vainly conceived; having, or capable of having, no existence except in thought.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Of or pertaining to a
chimera . - adjective Being a
figment of theimagination ;fantastic (in thearchaic sense). - adjective Inherently
fantastic ; wildlyfanciful .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective being or relating to or like a chimera
- adjective produced by a wildly fanciful imagination
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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He interested his brother Etienne in these so-called chimerical projects.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 10: Mass Music-Newman 1840-1916 1913
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Hodder fell asleep from sheer exhaustion, awaking during the night at occasional intervals to recall chimerical dreams in which the events of the day before were reflected, but caricatured and distorted.
The Inside of the Cup — Volume 04 Winston Churchill 1909
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Hodder fell asleep from sheer exhaustion, awaking during the night at occasional intervals to recall chimerical dreams in which the events of the day before were reflected, but caricatured and distorted.
Project Gutenberg Complete Works of Winston Churchill Winston Churchill 1909
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Hodder fell asleep from sheer exhaustion, awaking during the night at occasional intervals to recall chimerical dreams in which the events of the day before were reflected, but caricatured and distorted.
The Inside of the Cup — Complete Winston Churchill 1909
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She struggles for no kind of chimerical credit, disclaims the appearance of every affectation, and is in all things just what she seems, and others would be thought.
Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts of the World Anonymous
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Yes, sir, you are right; we have one "chimerical" idea -- giving our readers such a neat, spicy, beautiful paper for two dollars a year.
What the Press Says of Us Staff 1868
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But if the Israelis really do fear the loss of their deterrent from Lebanon — which is kind of chimerical; Israel is the regional superpower, and it says a lot that Hamas’s rockets are crude Qassams — then stopping now might play into the same psychodrama.
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"While others are feasting their fruitful imaginations with the idle and visionary dreams of fanaticism; with a kind of chimerical heaven of which they know _nothing_, as to its certainty: this man is in heaven already: dwelling in love, he 'dwelleth in God, and God in him.'
A Series of Letters in Defence of Divine Revelation Hosea Ballou 1811
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Agrippa had been entirely exploded, and that a modern system of science had been introduced, which possessed much greater powers than the ancient, because the powers of the latter were chimerical, while those of the former were real and practical; under such circumstances, I should certainly have thrown Agrippa aside, and have contented my imagination, warmed as it was, by returning with greater ardour to my former studies.
Chapter 2 2010
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What is clear, is that returning to industrial-age conditions and equilibriums is chimerical.
knitandpurl commented on the word chimerical
"For years I had believed that the notion of going to Mme Swann's was a vague, chimerical dream to which I should never attain; after I had spent a quarter of an hour in her drawing-room, it was the time when I did not yet know her that had become chimerical and vague like a possibility which the realisation of an alternative possibility has destroyed."
-- Within a Budding Grove by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, Revised by D.J. Enright, p 151 of the Modern Library paperback edition
April 20, 2008