willy-nilly

English

Alternative forms

• willy nilly

Etymology

From an original will I, nill I, or will he, nill he, or will ye, nill ye, which means “if I/he/ye are willing, if I/he/ye are not willing”, that is “whether I/he/ye are willing or not”; see will, nill.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌwɪliˈnɪli/

• Audio (US)

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Adverb

willy-nilly (comparative more willy-nilly, superlative most willy-nilly)

1. Whether desired or not.
   • 1954, Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception, Chatto & Windus, page 36:

     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.

   • 1894, Thomas Hardy, Hearts Insurgent, in Harper's Magazine, Volume XC, Number 536, page 195:

     He says he shall come for me willy-nilly, and father and mother say I must have him!

2. Without regard for consequences or the will of those affected.

   So people chasing money churn out novels willy-nilly.

3. Seemingly at random, haphazardly

   The novel Alice in Wonderland describes a place where random things happen all willy-nilly.

Synonyms

• nolens volens

Translations

whether desired or not

• Arabic: طَوْعًا أَوْ كَرْهًا (ṭawʕan ʔaw karhan)
• Armenian: ուզած-չուզած (uzac-čʻuzac)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: ^{(please verify)} 无论愿否

• Czech: chtě nechtě (cs), volky nevolky (cs)
• Dutch: willens nillens
• Finnish: halusimme tai emme
• French: bon gré mal gré (fr)
• German: wohl oder übel; ob man will oder nicht; volens nolens
• Greek: θέλοντας και μη (thélontas kai mi) (wanted or not), εκών άκων (el) (ekón ákon)
• Hungarian: kénytelen-kelletlen, akár tetszik, akár nem, ha tetszik, ha nem
• Ido: vole o nevole
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Latin: volens nolens (nolens volens)
• Lithuanian: nori nenori
• Polish: chcąc nie chcąc (pl)
• Portuguese: querendo ou não, queira ou não queira, obrigatoriamente
• Russian: во́лей-нево́лей (ru) (vólej-nevólej), хо́чешь не хо́чешь (xóčešʹ ne xóčešʹ)
• Scottish Gaelic: a dheòin no a dh'aindeoin
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: хтио не хтио, хтео не хтео (hteo ne hteo)

  Latin: htio ne htio, hteo ne hteo

• Spanish: quiera o no quiera, quiérase o no, guste o no guste
• Tatar: irekle-ireksez (irekle-ireksez)
• Turkish: ister istemez (tr)

without regard for consequences or wishes of those involved

• Arabic: طَوْعًا أَوْ كَرْهًا (ṭawʕan ʔaw karhan)
• Finnish: miten sattuu (fi)
• German: wohl oder übel; ob man will oder nicht; nolens volens (de)
• Greek: με το ζόρι (me to zóri) (with force)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: akár tetszik, akár nem, ha tetszik, ha nem, így is, úgy is
• Russian: тя́п-ля́п (ru) (tjáp-ljáp)
• Spanish: sea como sea

seemingly at random, haphazardly

• Czech: nahodile
• Finnish: miten sattuu (fi)
• German: willkürlich (de), einfach so, wahllos (de), scheinbar zufällig
• Italian: a casaccio
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Latin: per saturam
• Polish: na chybił trafił (pl)
• Portuguese: de qualquer maneira, de qualquer jeito
• Russian: тя́п-ля́п (ru) (tjáp-ljáp)
• Spanish: de cualquier manera, a tontas y a locas

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Albanian: ^{(please verify)} do s'do
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Adjective

willy-nilly (comparative more willy-nilly, superlative most willy-nilly)

1. vacillating

References

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:willy-nilly.
• “willy-nilly”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.