English Dictionary - With Multi-Lingual Search

English
Alternative spellings
willy-nilly

Etymology
Originally ‘will he, nill he’ or ‘will ye, nill ye’; see will, nill.

Pronunciation
IPA|/ˌwɪliˈnɪli/
audio|en-us-willy_nilly.ogg|Audio (US)

Adverb
en-adv|-

1. Whether desired or not.

#*1954: The outer world is what we wake up to every morning of our lives, is the place where, willy-nilly, we must try to make our living. — Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception (Chatto & Windus 1954, p. 36)

1. idiom Without regard for consequences or the will of those affected.

#:So people chasing money churn out novels willy nilly.

1. Seemingly at random.

#:Alice in Wonderland describes a place where random things happen all willy nilly.

Translations
Albanian: do s'do
Russian: волей-неволей

See also
nolens volens

seeCites

io:willy nilly

• 2007-10-06 00:03 - Interwicket - iwiki +io

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