wilfully

English

Alternative forms

• willfully (US)

Etymology

From Old English wilfullīċe, corresponding to wilful +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪlfəli/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adverb

wilfully (comparative more wilfully, superlative most wilfully)

1. (obsolete) Willingly, of one's own free will.
   • 1581, An Abstract of all the penal Statutes ... Collected by Fardinando Pulton, etc. B.L., England, page 227:

     […] wilfully and comptly commit […]

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Why then dost thou, O man, that of them all / Art Lord, and eke of nature Soueraine, / Wilfully make thy selfe a wretched thrall [...]?

2. Deliberately, on purpose.

   Troponym: maliciously