Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- Of free will or choice; willingly; voluntarily; gladly; readily.
- By design; with set purpose; intentionally; especially, in a wilful manner; as following one's own will; selfishly; perversely; obstinately; stubbornly.
- In law, wilfully is sometimes interpreted to mean
- by an act or an omission done of purpose, with intent to bring about a certain result; or
- with implication of evil intent or legal malice, or with absence of reasonable ground for believing the act in question to be lawful.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adverb obsolete
Willingly , of one's own free will. - adverb
Deliberately ,on purpose ;maliciously .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adverb in a willful manner
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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So that he here describes the worst of sinners, -- those that sin wilfully, and against the convictions of their own consciences, whereby they add rebellion to their sin, -- those that sin deliberately, and with a great deal of plot and contrivance, using
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume III (Job to Song of Solomon) 1721
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26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume VI (Acts to Revelation) 1721
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You, I well know, would shudder at the idea of wilfully depriving yourself of reason, and of sinking yourself to the situation of a beast or of a maniac.
Advice to a Young Man upon First Going to Oxford In Ten Letters, From an Uncle to His Nephew Edward Berens
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It is not difficult to understand that the painter of a ‘Proserpine’ and a ‘Ghirlandata’ would occasionally feel the luxury of a mood intellectually lazy, and would be minded to give voice to it — as in this instance — in terms wilfully extreme; keeping his mental eye none the less steadily directed to a
Old Familiar Faces Theodore Watts-Dunton 1873
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"I know you like him the best," said her cousin wilfully.
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All you have to do is to repent and trust to Him, and to go and sin no more, intentionally, wilfully that is to say.
Taking Tales Instructive and Entertaining Reading William Henry Giles Kingston 1847
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There is the odd zinger - "Superhero just lying down", for instance, whose title wilfully undercuts the image of a hero apparently in full flight - but, in the main, they are more like bad greeting-card puns than clever witticisms.
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"(Rau could) at best be described as wilfully blind to what was going on, at worst highly dishonest, deceitful and calculated conduct," he said.
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Acts such as wilfully distorting your chart figures and preventing people from linking to specific blog entries are highly unbecoming.
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A sub-heading inserted in the article, claiming that McNally had "wilfully" avoided uncovering hit squads in KwaZulu-Natal, did not reflect the contents of the story, the M&G said in a statement.
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