Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- auxiliary verb To be unwilling; will not.
- transitive verb Not to will; not to wish.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Will not; wish not; refuse; reject.
- Will not; be unwilling.
- noun Negative volition; a “will not.”
- noun The shining sparks of brass given off in trying and melting the ore.
- noun Scales of hot iron from the forge.
- noun A dialectal form of
needle . - noun A dialectal form of
nail .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb To be unwilling; to refuse to act.
- intransitive verb whether he wills it or not; usually contracted to
willy-nilly . - transitive verb obsolete Not to will; to refuse; to reject.
- noun Shining sparks thrown off from melted brass.
- noun Scales of hot iron from the forge.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Shining sparks thrown off from melted brass.
- noun Scales of hot iron from the forge.
- verb modal auxiliary, obsolete To be unwilling; will not (+ infinitive).
- verb intransitive, archaic To be
unwilling . - verb transitive, archaic To
reject ,refuse ,negate .
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Unsurprisingly, there were some pretty inventive ways of saying it, such as nill — from which the term willy-nilly (literally meaning “will he, won’t he” in Middle English) is derived.
Preposterous Apostrophes VII: Why Won’t Willn’t Work? « Motivated Grammar 2008
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With the overwhelming majority of swing voters believing she is unqualified to hold national office her chances of carrying a national election are next to nill.
Palin on 2012: 'If it's right, then we will pursue that' 2010
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That is the likelihood of default on T-Bills traded, which has gone from practically nill to 6% on a 10 year note.
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NBC has already made the decision to banish it to Saturday nights starting April 18th, so its chances of renewal are almost nill.
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NBC has already made the decision to banish it to Saturday nights starting April 18th, so its chances of renewal are almost nill.
08 « April « 2009 « Axiom's Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy 2009
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With 20% unemployment (real numbers) the economy in the tank, wages cut, businesses lost, foreclosures at record numbers, and personal income almost nill, the working class is not making enough money to be taxed.
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We don't have good data, we don't have probabilities, and we don't have the slightest idea of the costs and the effectiveness is near nill and greatly overestimated (economics suggest that unintended consequences will result in only the slightest effect from policy change).
Freeman Dyson on Global Warming, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009
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As I remember your evidence for god was Fjords .. 1 - nill to the atheists.
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*I don't know that he ever owned slaves personally, in fact I'd be surprised if he did; but in a society with slavery all non-enslaved people reap the benefits of that institution, whether they will or nill.
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I've never really had a lot of hope for this project and now .... well, my interest is nill.
Smallville Scribes Hired to Ruin Live-Action Robotech Movie | /Film 2008
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