WANTa sudden feeling that you would like to do or have something, especially when there is no important or good reason 突发的念头,一时的兴致〔尤指没有重要或充分的理由时〕
on a whim
I didn’t leave just on a whim (=for no good reason).
我不是一时心血来潮离开的。
at the whim of somebody
At work they are at the whim of the boss.
工作中他们要配合老板的步调行事。
somebody’s every whim
Their father had always indulged her every whim.
他们的父亲总是对她百依百顺。
at whim
He appeared and disappeared at whim.
他想来就来,想走就走。
Examples from the Corpus
whim• This is just a whim but it is great fun.• I don't know why I bought it. I suppose it was just a whim.• I went to visit her on a whim.• Athletes are penalized for transferring, but coaches may leave on a whim.• He had never been able to lose himself in a crowd, or dash off somewhere suddenly on a whim.• The sail had been a hindrance, making sport of me at each whim of the wind, so I lowered it.• It cried out to be fondled, yanked, and squeezed, and I bowed to its whims with a willing heart.• That first day or two, I kept on thinking he would telephone, that it was all a sort of whim.
on a whim• He broke agreementson a whim, relying on privatebargains and connections.• She remembered that somewhere Dorothy had kept old photographalbums and, on a whim, began to search for them.• But don't for one moment feel you're fickle if you change your perfume constantly, on a whim.• That is my point: you have castaside the probability of futurehappinesson a whim.• Athletes are penalized for transferring, but coaches may leave on a whim.• Bought them by the yard or by the box, or on a whim.• With the city in such a ferment, they could be stopped on a whim by police or soldiers.• He had never been able to lose himself in a crowd, or dash off somewhere suddenly on a whim.• She decided to make the tripon a whim.
Originwhim
(1600-1700)whim-wham“decorative object, whim”((16-19 centuries)), of unknown origin