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Nill   Listen
verb
Nill  v. i.  To be unwilling; to refuse to act. "The actions of the will are "velle" and "nolle," to will and nill."
Will he, nill he, whether he wills it or not; usually contracted to willy-nilly.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Nill" Quotes from Famous Books



... Connachar had for her, he wanted to marry Deirdre right off there and then, will she nill she marry him. But she said to him, "I would be obliged to you if you will give me the respite of a year and a day." He said "I will grant you that, hard though it is, if you will give me your unfailing promise that you will marry me at the year's end." And she gave the promise. Connachar got for ...
— Celtic Fairy Tales • Joseph Jacobs (coll. & ed.)

... cried the irate Captain. "A pretty fix you two would have been in, but for the Doctor. I'll ride down to the parsonage, or whatever you call it, immediately after luncheon, and bring him back to dinner, will he nill he—the Cure, too, if he'll come, for the Cure ...
— Kate Danton, or, Captain Danton's Daughters - A Novel • May Agnes Fleming

... to goe aboord the Gabriel where he continued all the way homeward: for the boystrous blasts continued so extreamely and so long a time, that they sent vs homewarde (which was Gods fauour towardes vs) will we, nill we, in such haste as not any one of vs were able to keepe in company with other, but were separated. And if by chance any one Shippe did ouertake other, by swiftnesse of sayle, or mette, as they often did: yet was the rigour ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation, Vol. XII., America, Part I. • Richard Hakluyt

... thee warn, Neither when Conscience counselled thee, thou wouldst his words embrace, Who would have had thee unto God obedience true to learn; Nor couldst between Suggestion's craft and Conscience' truth discern: Behold, therefore, thou shalt of me another lesson hear, Which (will thou, nill thou,) with torment of Conscience thou shalt bear. And where thou hast extinguished the Holy Spirit of God, And made him weary with thy sins, which daily thou hast done, He will no longer in thy soul and spirit make abode, But with the graces, ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VI • Robert Dodsley

... him, will he or nill he; and the knight goeth accordingly with right sore grudging. They had scarce ridden away, when he heard in the forest off the way, two damsels that bewailed them right sore, and prayed our Lord God ...
— High History of the Holy Graal • Unknown



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