1
: a capricious or eccentric and often sudden idea or turn of the mind : fancy
quit his job on a whim
2
: a large capstan that is made with one or more radiating arms to which a horse may be yoked and that is used in mines for raising ore or water
Synonyms
Examples of whim in a Sentence
It's hard to predict voters' whims.
on a whim, we stopped at the roadside stand to get ice cream
Recent Examples on the Web
And to create their own self-perpetuating culture on behalf of Children’s Mercy on what began as more or less a whim of Riggle’s in 2010 to host a poker tournament with Rudd and Sudeikis to raise $50,000 one year.
—
Vahe Gregorian, Kansas City Star, 31 May 2024
The authoritarians tell their audiences that the liberals want to take all that is solid — from your morality to your gender — and reduce it to the instability of a personal whim.
—David Brooks, The Mercury News, 22 May 2024
Prices have pulled back to around $2,300 per ounce, but there is a growing sentiment that the gold market is governed no longer by economic factors but by the whims of Chinese buyers and investors.
—Claire Fu, New York Times, 5 May 2024
And in the third sequence, cult members played by Stone and Plemons search for a woman able to wake the dead, though the whims of their guru (Dafoe) dictate that this mysterious woman also be a certain height and weight and have an identical twin.
—Kyle Buchanan, New York Times, 20 May 2024
See all Example Sentences for whim 
Vahe Gregorian, Kansas City Star, 31 May 2024
The authoritarians tell their audiences that the liberals want to take all that is solid — from your morality to your gender — and reduce it to the instability of a personal whim.
—David Brooks, The Mercury News, 22 May 2024
Prices have pulled back to around $2,300 per ounce, but there is a growing sentiment that the gold market is governed no longer by economic factors but by the whims of Chinese buyers and investors.
—Claire Fu, New York Times, 5 May 2024
And in the third sequence, cult members played by Stone and Plemons search for a woman able to wake the dead, though the whims of their guru (Dafoe) dictate that this mysterious woman also be a certain height and weight and have an identical twin.
—Kyle Buchanan, New York Times, 20 May 2024
See all Example Sentences for whim
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'whim.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near whim
Cite this Entry
“Whim.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whim. Accessed 10 Jun. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
whim
noun
ˈhwim 
ˈwim
: an odd or sudden wish, desire, or change of mind
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