Both Uses of
capricious
in
A Tale of Two Cities
- Every town-gate and village taxing-house had its band of citizenpatriots, with their national muskets in a most explosive state of readiness, who stopped all comers and goers, cross-questioned them, inspected their papers, looked for their names in lists of their own, turned them back, or sent them on, or stopped them and laid them in hold, as their capricious judgment or fancy deemed best for the dawning Republic One and Indivisible, of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or Death.†
Chpt 3.1
- So capriciously were the people moved, that tears immediately rolled down several ferocious countenances which had been glaring at the prisoner a moment before, as if with impatience to pluck him out into the streets and kill him.
Chpt 3.6 *capriciously = with impulsiveness that is hard to predict
Definition:
-
(capricious) impulsive or unpredictable or tending to make sudden changes -- especially impulsive behavior