willy-nilly
adverb
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L203842 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˌwɪl.iːˈnɪl.iː/ / /ˌwɪl.iˈnɪl.i/ / /ˌwəl.iːˈnəl.iː/
adj
Etymology: From will I, nill I (“if I want, if I don't want”); also as will he, nill he and will ye, nill ye. See will (“to desire, to wish, to be willing”), nill (“to not desire, to not wish, to be unwilling”). Compare Latin velim nōlim (“if I desire it or not”, “willy nilly”). Compare English harum-scarum of the same meaning.
- That happens whether willingly or unwillingly.
“[S]omeone saw thy willy-nilly nun / Vying a tress against our golden fern.”
“O my God, if man be only / A willy-nilly current of sensations— / Reaction needs must follow revel—yet— / Why feel remorse, he, knowing that he must have / Moved in the iron grooves of Destiny?”
- Seemingly random; haphazard; arbitrary.
adv
Etymology: From will I, nill I (“if I want, if I don't want”); also as will he, nill he and will ye, nill ye. See will (“to desire, to wish, to be willing”), nill (“to not desire, to not wish, to be unwilling”). Compare Latin velim nōlim (“if I desire it or not”, “willy nilly”). Compare English harum-scarum of the same meaning.
- Whether desired or not; without regard for consequences or wishes of those affected; whether willingly or unwillingly.
“Whenever I see a long handsome neck, willy nilly, the thought will come uppermost—What a capital neck for carving! Those cursed executions! One can't rid one's mind of them.”
“[I]f you love him not, then you can love me, and, therefore, can come to please yourself, willy-nilly. What! am I to be thwarted in such a trifle? Willy-nilly, I say, I will marry thee. Come—we waste the time.”
- Seemingly at random; haphazardly.
“The novel Alice in Wonderland describes a place where things happen willy-nilly.”
“Some writers chasing money churn out novels willy-nilly.”