will
[wɪɫ] verb, noun, proper noun
Forms willing would wilt willst willest wouldst wouldest wills willed 'll vill weel wil wille woll wyll
- verb (auxiliary) Used to express the future tense, sometimes with an implication of volition or determination when used in the first person. Compare shall. “Do not forget, will you?”
- verb (auxiliary) To be able to, to have the capacity to. “Unfortunately, only one of these gloves will actually fit over my hand.”
- verb (auxiliary) Expressing a present tense or perfect tense with some conditional or subjective weakening: "will turn out to", "must by inference". “He will be home by now. He always gets home before 6 o'clock.”
- verb (auxiliary) To habitually do (a given action). “Boys will be boys.”
- verb (auxiliary) To choose or agree to (do something); used to express intention but without any temporal connotations, often in questions and negation. “Will you marry me?”
- verb (now uncommon or literary, transitive) To wish, desire (something). “Do what you will.”
- verb (now rare, intransitive) To wish or desire (that something happen); to intend (that). “Consider, if you will, the possibility that the sherry glasses were misplaced accidentally.”
- verb (archaic) Implying will go.
- noun One's independent faculty of choice; the ability to be able to exercise one's choice or intention. “Of course, man's will is often regulated by his reason.”
- noun The act of choosing to do something; a person’s conscious intent or volition. “Most creatures have a will to live.”
- noun One's intention or decision; someone's orders or commands. “Eventually I submitted to my parents' will.”
- noun Firmness of purpose, fixity of intent
- noun (law) A formal declaration of one's intent concerning the disposal of one's property and holdings after death; the legal document stating such wishes.
- noun (archaic) That which is desired; one's wish.
- noun (archaic) Desire, longing. (Now generally merged with later senses.) “He felt a great will to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.”
- verb (transitive, intransitive) To instruct (that something be done) in one's will.
- verb (transitive) To bequeath (something) to someone in one's will (legal document). “He willed his stamp collection to the local museum.”
- verb (transitive) To exert one's force of will (intention) in order to compel, or attempt to compel, something to happen or someone to do something. “All the fans were willing their team to win the game.”
- proper noun A diminutive of the male given name William or, less often, other given names beginning with Wil-, such as Wilfred or Willard, from the Germanic languages; also used as a formal given name.
- proper noun A diminutive of the female given name Willow.
Synonyms
determination firmness resoluteness resolve testament last will last will and testament bequeath leave volition
Etymology
From Middle English willen, wullen, wollen, from Old English willan (“to want”), from Proto-West Germanic *willjan, from Proto-Germanic *wiljaną, from Proto-Indo-European *welh₁- (“to choose, wish”).
Cognate with Yola ill, weel, well, will, woul, wull (“will”), North Frisian wale, wel (“to want”), Saterland Frisian and West Frisian wolle (“to want”), Alemannic German and Central Franconian welle (“to want”), Cimbrian béllan, bölln (“to want”), Dutch willen (“to want”), German wollen (“to want”), Low German wüllen (“to want; will”), Luxembourgish wëllen (“to want”), Yiddish וועלן (veln, “to want”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål ville (“to want”), Faroese, Icelandic, and Swedish vilja (“to want”), Jamtish vili (“to want; wish”), Norwegian Nynorsk vilja, vilje (“want; will”), Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌻𐌾𐌰𐌽 (wiljan, “to want”); also Latin velle (“wish”, verb), voleō, volo (“to please, to wish; to want”), French vouloir (“to want”), Italian volere (“to want”), Irish fleá, fleadh (“feast”), Scottish Gaelic fleadh (“feast”), Welsh gwledd (“banquet, feast”), Lithuanian viltis (“to hope; to rely; to expect”), Czech velet (“to command”), volit (“to choose; to elect”), Polish woleć (“to prefer”), Russian во́ля (vólja, “freedom”), во́льный (vólʹnyj, “free”), веле́ть (velétʹ, “to command, to enjoin, to order”), Ukrainian воля (volja, “freedom, liberty, will”), вільний (vilʹnyj, “free”), веліти (velity, “to will, to order, to command”), воліти (volity, “to will, to prefer”), Old Armenian գեղձ (gełj, “desire, wish”), Sanskrit वृणीते (vṛṇīte), वृणोति (vṛṇoti, “to choose”). The verb is not always distinguishable from Etymology 3, below.
(indicating future action): Compare typologically Bulgarian ще (šte), Macedonian ќе (ḱe), Serbo-Croatian хтети (< Proto-Slavic *xotěti).
From Middle English wille, from Old English willa (compare verb willian), from Proto-Germanic *wiljô (“desire, will”), from Proto-Indo-European *welh₁- (“to choose, wish”). Cognate with Dutch wil, German Wille, Swedish vilja, Norwegian vilje.
From Middle English willen, from Old English willian (“to will”), from Proto-West Germanic *willjōn (“to will”), from Proto-Indo-European *welh₁- (“to choose, wish”). Cognate with German Low German willen, German willen. The verb is not always distinguishable from Etymology 1, above.
Clipping of William or Willow, less often, other given names beginning with Wil-, such as Wilfred or Willard.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The power of choosing; the faculty or endowment of the soul by which it is capable of choosing; the faculty or power of the mind by which we decide to do or not to do; the power or faculty of preferring or selecting one of two or more objects.
- noun The choice which is made; a determination or preference which results from the act or exercise of the power of choice; a volition.
- verb To wish; to desire; to incline to have.
- verb As an auxiliary, will is used to denote futurity dependent on the verb. Thus, in first person, "I will" denotes willingness, consent, promise; and when "will" is emphasized, it denotes determination or fixed purpose; as, I will go if you wish; I will go at all hazards.
Etymology [OE. wille, AS. willa; akin to OFries. willa, OS. willeo, willio, D. wil, G. wille, Icel. vili, Dan. villie, Sw. vilja, Goth wilja. See Will, v.]
Etymology [OE. willen, imp. wolde; akin to OS. willan, OFries. willa, D. willen, G. wollen, OHG. wollan, wellan, Icel. & Sw. vilja, Dan. ville, Goth. wiljan, OSlav. voliti, L. velle to wish, volo I wish; cf. Skr. vrs to choose, to prefer. Cf. Voluntary, Welcome, Well, adv.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “will”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details