will
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /wɪl/
ipa: [wɪɫ]
note: l-vocalizing: UK, General Australian, New Zealand
ipa: [wɪo̯]
note: l-vocalizing: UK, General Australian, New Zealand
ipa: [wɪʊ̯]
rhymes: -ɪl
Forms: form: will
form: willing
form: would
form: 'll
form: vill
form: weel
form: wil
form: wille
form: woll
form: wyll
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 Dutch willen, Low German willen, German wollen, Danish ville, Swedish and Norwegian Nynorsk vilja, Norwegian Bokmål ville, Latin velle (“wish”, verb), Latin volo, French vouloir, Italian volere, Ukrainian воля (volja, “freedom, liberty, will”), Ukrainian вільний (vilʹnyj, “free”), Ukrainian воліти (volity, “to will, to prefer”), Ukrainian веліти (velity, “to will, to order, to command”) and Albanian vel (“to satisfy, be stuffed”). The verb is not always distinguishable from Etymology 3, below.
Senses: examples: text: Do not forget, will you?
text: Will you be doing the shopping this evening? If so, will you do mine too, please?
text: Won't you have another glass of wine? No, I think I’ll go to bed.
text: Can somebody lend me a hand? ~ I will.
text: I'm going to quit smoking. I really will!
text: The President will arrive at 10.00 - Will she be wanting lunch?
text: If you will come this way, I’ll show you your bedroom.
text: If your sis won’t be here on Thu, we’d better cancel the booking. - I will pray that she arrives on time.
text: That'll be £69.99, please. Last for ever this pair of jeans sure will.
text: This breakthrough will mean that we spend less on the electricity bill.
text: We'll finish ours sooner than you (do/will).
text: Dad, will you take me to the park? Will you, please? - Will you be quiet! I'm on the phone.
text: I'll hold that for you, shall I?
text: The baby will surely have green eyes, because both parents have.
text: 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.
ref: c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)]:
text: “I will, with your leave, relate to you, miss, the story of one of our customers.”
ref: 1859, Charles Dickens, chapter 4, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC:
text: 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.
ref: 1958 January 23, 'Borderer', “Ten Years of British Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 12:
glosses: Used to express the future tense, sometimes with an implication of volition or determination when used in the first person. Compare shall.
examples: text: Unfortunately, only one of these gloves will actually fit over my hand.
glosses: To be able to, to have the capacity to.
examples: text: He will be home by now. He always gets home before 6 o'clock.
text: I can't find my umbrella. I will've left it at home this morning.
text: I’ll kill anybody who touches my car.
text: “That will be five zloty.” I reached into my pocket and came up with some coins.
ref: 2007, Edward Jesko, The Polish:
text: Unless she diverted on the ten minute walk home, she’ll have got home at about half past.
ref: 2012, Penny Freedman, All The Daughters:
glosses: Expressing a present tense or perfect tense with some conditional or subjective weakening: "will turn out to", "must by inference".
examples: text: Boys will be boys.
text: People will talk.
text: I will fall in love with the wrong women time and again.
text: The shapes of clouds will often remind us of animals.
text: Most nights I'll read a little before going to sleep.
text: 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.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 17:7–8:
text: As young men will, I did my best to appear suave and sophisticated.
ref: 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 28:
text: How telling is it that many women will volunteer for temporary disablement by wearing high heeled shoes that hobble them?
ref: 2009, Stephen Bayley, The Telegraph, 24 Sep 09:
text: So far neither side has scored a decisive victory, though each will occasionally claim one.
ref: 2011, “Connubial bliss in America”, in The Economist:
glosses: To habitually do (a given action).
examples: text: Will you marry me?
text: What will you drink?
text: I’ve told him three times, but he won’t take his medicine.
glosses: To choose or agree to (do something); used to express intention but without any temporal connotations, often in questions and negation.
examples: text: Do what you will.
text: God willed it.
text: If thou wilt fare well at meat and meal, come and follow me.
ref: c. 1450, The Macro Plays:
text: Twelfe Night, Or what you will (original spelling)
ref: 1601, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, or What You Will:
text: And behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 8:2:
text: Grant what Thou dost command, and command what Thou wilt.
ref: 1944, St. Augustine, translated by FJ Sheed, Confessions:
glosses: To wish, desire (something).
examples: text: Consider, if you will, the possibility that the sherry glasses were misplaced accidentally.
text: the disciples cam to Jesus sayinge unto hym: where wylt thou that we prepare for the to eate the ester lambe?
ref: 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Matthew:
text: 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."
ref: 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:
glosses: To wish or desire (that something happen); to intend (that).
examples: text: I’ll to England.
ref: c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
glosses: Implying will go.
Derived terms: accidents will happen
accidents will happen in the best regulated families
a drowning man will clutch at a straw
a hit dog will holler
boys will be boys
butter will not melt in someone's mouth
by their fruits you will know them
cooler heads will prevail
cool heads will prevail
even a worm will turn
faith will move mountains
five will get you ten
give someone an inch and someone will take a mile
heads will roll
if you lie with dogs you will get fleas
if you will
in this essay I will
I will yeah
kids will be kids
longways for as many as will
murder will out
one will know the reason why
only time will tell
spare the rod and you will spoil the child
take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves
ten will get you twenty
that and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee
that will do
the poor we will always have with us
there are none so blind as those who will not see
the revolution will not be televised
the sky will fall on your head
the terrorists will have won
throw enough mud at the wall and some of it will stick
time alone will tell
time will tell
too much pudding will choke a dog
truth will out
what's bred in the bone will come out in the flesh
when the cat's away the mice will play
who keeps company with the wolf will learn to howl
will call
will do
will the real someone please stand up
will-they-won't-they
will you marry me
you will own nothing and be happy