From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishwhimwhim /wɪm/ noun [countable usually singular] WANTa sudden feeling that you would like to do or have something, especially when there is no important or good reasonon a whim I didn’t leave just on a whim (=for no good reason).at the whim of somebody At work they are at the whim of the boss.somebody’s every whim Their father had always indulged her every whim.at whim He appeared and disappeared at whim.
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 agreements on a whim, relying on private bargains and connections.• She remembered that somewhere Dorothy had kept old photograph albums 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 cast aside the probability of future happiness on 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 trip on a whim.Origin whim (1600-1700) whim-wham “decorative object, whim” ((16-19 centuries)), of unknown origin 