Whim’sey, n.
(hwĭm’zÿ), n. [From whim.]
Sense 1. A whim; a freak; a capricious notion; as, the whimseys of poets. “Men’s follies, whimseys, and inconstancy.” Swift. “Mistaking the whimseys of a feverish brain for the calm revelation of truth.” Bancroft.
Sense 2. (Mining.) A whim.
Water-whimsey (Mining), a capstan or windlass for raising ore, coal, and the like, from the shaft of a mine, by the weight of water, which, descending in one bucket, draws up another filled with the substance to be raised.