Pronunciations (5)
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/wɪl/
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[wɪɫ]
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
- US
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[wɪo̯]
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[wɪʊ̯]
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wɪl
Verb
Used to express the future tense, sometimes with an implication of volition or determination when used in the first person. Compare shall.
Usage- auxiliary
- no-past-participle
- Examples
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Do not forget, will you?
Will you be doing the shopping this evening? If so, will you do mine too, please?
More examples (20)
Won't you have another glass of wine? — No, I think I’ll go to bed.
Can somebody lend me a hand? — I will.
I'm going to quit smoking. I really will!
The President will arrive at 10.00 — Will she be wanting lunch?
If you will come this way, I’ll show you your bedroom.
I said I’d help, and help I will.
If your sis won’t be here on Thu, we’d better cancel the booking. — I will pray that she arrives on time.
That'll be £69.99, please. Last for ever this pair of jeans sure will.
This breakthrough will mean that we spend less on the electricity bill.
We'll finish ours sooner than you (do/will).
Dad, will you take me to the park? Will you, please? — Will you be quiet! I'm on the phone.
I'll hold that for you, shall I?
If my plans change, I will let you know.
If we don't go now, I will be late for my class.
They will've forgotten what I look like by now.
The baby will surely have green eyes, because both parents have.
If you bring your tents, we will all camp on the coast.
Good fool, as ever thou wilt deserve well at my hand, help me to a candle, and pen, ink and paper : as I am a gentleman, I will live to be thankful to thee for’t.
“I will, with your leave, relate to you, miss, the story of one of our customers.”
In the first place, although many people wanted nationalisation and it became the will of Parliament, there were many other people who did not want it, have never willingly accepted it, and never will.
To be able to, to have the capacity to.
Usage- auxiliary
- no-past-participle
- Examples
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Unfortunately, only one of these gloves will actually fit over my hand.
Expressing a present tense or perfect tense with some conditional or subjective weakening: "will turn out to", "must by inference".
Usage- auxiliary
- no-past-participle
- Examples
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He will be home by now. He always gets home before 6 o'clock.
I can't find my umbrella. I will've left it at home this morning.
More examples (3)
I’ll kill anybody who touches my car.
“That will be five zloty.” I reached into my pocket and came up with some coins.
Unless she diverted on the ten minute walk home, she’ll have got home at about half past.
To habitually do (a given action).
Usage- auxiliary
- no-past-participle
- Examples
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Boys will be boys.
People will talk.
More examples (7)
I will fall in love with the wrong women time and again.
The shapes of clouds will often remind us of animals.
Most nights I'll read a little before going to sleep.
But which of you hauing a seruant plowing, or feeding cattell, will say vnto him by & by when he is come from the field, Goe and sit downe to meate? And will not rather say vnto him, Make ready wherewith I may suppe, and gird thy selfe, and serue me, till I haue eaten and drunken: and afterward thou shalt eate and drinke.
As young men will, I did my best to appear suave and sophisticated.
How telling is it that many women will volunteer for temporary disablement by wearing high heeled shoes that hobble them?
So far neither side has scored a decisive victory, though each will occasionally claim one.
To choose or agree to (do something); used to express intention but without any temporal connotations, often in questions and negation.
Usage- auxiliary
- no-past-participle
- Examples
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Will you marry me?
What will you drink?
More examples (1)
I’ve told him three times, but he won’t take his medicine.
To wish, desire (something).
Usage- Literary
- no-past-participle
- Transitive
- Uncommon
- Examples
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Do what you will.
God willed it.
More examples (4)
If thou wilt fare well at meat and meal, come and follow me.
Twelfe Night, Or what you will (original spelling)
And behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
Grant what Thou dost command, and command what Thou wilt.
To wish or desire (that something happen); to intend (that).
Usage- Archaic
- Intransitive
- no-past-participle
- Examples
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Consider, if you will, the possibility that the sherry glasses were misplaced accidentally.
the disciples cam to Jesus sayinge unto hym: where wylt thou that we prepare for the to eate the ester lambe?
More examples (1)
see God's goodwill toward men, hear how generally his grace is proposed, to him, and him, and them, each man in particular, and to all. 1 Tim. ii. 4. "God will that all men be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth."
Implying will go.
Usage- Archaic
- no-past-participle
- Examples
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I’ll to England.
Noun
One's independent faculty of choice; the ability to be able to exercise one's choice or intention.
- Examples
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Of course, man's will is often regulated by his reason.
The act of choosing to do something; a person’s conscious intent or volition.
- Examples
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Most creatures have a will to live.
The father chose the name and could change it later at his will.
More examples (1)
The episode’s unwillingness to fully commit to the pathos of the Bart-and-Laura subplot is all the more frustrating considering its laugh quota is more than filled by a rollicking B-story that finds Homer, he of the iron stomach and insatiable appetite, filing a lawsuit against The Frying Dutchman when he’s hauled out of the eatery against his will after consuming all of the restaurant’s shrimp (plus two plastic lobsters).
One's intention or decision; someone's orders or commands.
- Examples
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Eventually I submitted to my parents' will.
More examples (1)
In the first place, although many people wanted nationalisation and it became the will of Parliament, there were many other people who did not want it, have never willingly accepted it, and never will.
Firmness of purpose, fixity of intent
- Examples
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More examples (2)
Thus Mill’s case for the claim that happiness is the sole human end, put more carefully, is this: ‘Whatever is desired otherwise than as a means to some end beyond itself, and ultimately to happiness, is desired as itself a part of happiness, and is not desired for itself until has become so’ (1861a: 237). Nothing here assumed Hume’s view that every action must ultimately flow from an underived desire. That is a quite separate issue, and Mill’s view of it is closer to that of Kant or Reid than to that of Hume. He insists ‘positively and emphatically’ that the will is a different thing from desire; that a person of confirmed virtue, or any other person whose purposes are fixed, carries out his purposes without any thought of the pleasure he has in contemplating them, or expects to derive from their fulfilment. (1861a: 238) This distinction between purpose and desire is central to Mill’s conception of the will. When we develop purposes we can will against mere likings or aversions: ‘In the case of an habitual purpose, instead of willing the thing because we desire it, we often desire it only because we will it’ (1861a: 238). Every action is caused by a motive, but not every motive is a liking or aversion: When the will is said to be determined by motives, a motive does not mean always, or solely, the anticipation of a pleasure or of a pain…. A habit of willing is commonly called a purpose; and among the causes of our volitions, and of the actions which flow from them, must be reckoned not only likings and aversions, but also purposes. (1843: 842) The formation of purposes from desires is the evolution of will; it is also the development of character. Mill quotes Novalis: ‘a character is a completely fashioned will’ (1843: 843).
...surely the link could not have been with Churchill the brilliant, gallant and steadfast wartime leader who, by dint of character, will and language, turned near defeat into victory.
A formal declaration of one's intent concerning the disposal of one's property and holdings after death; the legal document stating such wishes.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
“Uncle Barnaby was always father and mother to me,” Benson broke in; then after a pause his mind flew off at a tangent. “Is old Hannah all right—in the will, I mean?”
That which is desired; one's wish.
Usage- Archaic
- Examples
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I auow by this most sacred head / Of my deare foster child, to ease thy griefe, / And win thy will [...].
Desire, longing. (Now generally merged with later senses.)
Usage- Archaic
- Examples
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He felt a great will to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
Verb
To instruct (that something be done) in one's will.
Usage- Intransitive
- Transitive
To bequeath (something) to someone in one's will (legal document).
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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He willed his stamp collection to the local museum.
To exert one's force of will (intention) in order to compel, or attempt to compel, something to happen or someone to do something.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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All the fans were willing their team to win the game.
Her parents were watching her run, willing her on.
More examples (3)
They willed me say so, madam.
Send for music, / And will the cooks to use their best of cunning / To please the palate.
The white feminist and white gay movement have willed themselves ignorant of black feminist and black gay experiences.
Noun
the capability of conscious choice and decision and intention
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
a fixed and persistent intent or purpose
- Examples
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where there's a will, there's a way
a legal document declaring a person's wishes regarding the disposal of their property when they die
- Synonyms
Verb
decree or ordain
- Broader terms
- Examples
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God wills our existence
determine by choice
- Broader terms
- Examples
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This action was willed and intended
leave or give by will after one's death
- Examples
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My aunt bequeathed me all her jewelry
My grandfather left me his entire estate