Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of 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.