Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • auxiliary verb Used to indicate simple futurity.
  • auxiliary verb Used to indicate likelihood or certainty.
  • auxiliary verb Used to indicate willingness.
  • auxiliary verb Used to indicate requirement or command.
  • auxiliary verb Used to indicate intention.
  • auxiliary verb Used to indicate customary or habitual action.
  • auxiliary verb Used to indicate capacity or ability.
  • auxiliary verb Used to indicate probability or expectation.
  • transitive & intransitive verb To wish; desire.
  • noun The mental faculty by which one deliberately chooses or decides upon a course of action.
  • noun Diligent purposefulness; determination.
  • noun Self-control; self-discipline.
  • noun A desire, purpose, or determination, especially of one in authority.
  • noun Deliberate intention or wish.
  • noun Free discretion; inclination or pleasure.
  • noun Bearing or attitude toward others; disposition.
  • noun A legal declaration of how a person wishes his or her possessions to be disposed of after death.
  • noun A legally executed document containing this declaration.
  • intransitive verb To decide on or intend.
  • intransitive verb To yearn for; desire.
  • intransitive verb To decree, dictate, or order.
  • intransitive verb To induce or try to induce by sheer force of will.
  • intransitive verb To grant in a legal will; bequeath.
  • intransitive verb To order to direct in a legal will.
  • intransitive verb To exercise the will.
  • intransitive verb To make a choice; choose.
  • idiom (at will) Just as or when one wishes.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • A As an independent verb.
  • To wish; desire; want; be willing to have (a certain thing done): now chiefly used in the subjunctive (optative) preterit form would governing a clause: as, I would that the day were at hand. When in the first person the subject is frequently omitted: as, would that ye had listened to us!
  • Would in optative expressions is often followed by a dative, with or without to, noting the person or power by whom the wish may be fulfilled: hence the phrases would (to) God, would (to) heaven, etc.
  • To have a wish or desire; be willing.
  • B. As an auxiliary, followed by an infinitive without to.
  • To wish, want, like, or agree (to do, etc.); to be (am, is, are, was, etc.) willing (to do, etc.): noting desire, preference, consent, or, negatively, refusal.
  • To be (am, is, are, etc.) determined (to do, etc.): said when one insists on or persists in being or doing something; hence, must, as a matter of will or pertinacity; do (emphatic auxiliary) from choice, wilfulness, determination, or persistence.
  • To make (it) a habit or practice (to do, etc.); be (am, is, are, etc.) accustomed (to do, etc.); do usually: noting frequent or customary action.
  • To be (am, is, are, etc.) sure (to do, etc.); do undoubtedly, inevitably, or of necessity; ought or have (to do, etc.); must: used in incontrovertible or general statements, and often, especially in provincial use, forming a verbphrase signifying no more than the simple verb: as, I'm thinking this will be (that is, this is) your daughter.
  • To be (am, is, are, etc.) ready or about (to do, etc.): said of one on the point of doing something not necessarily accomplished.
  • In future and conditional constructions, to be (am, is, are, etc.) (to do, etc.): in general noting in the first person a promise or determination, and in the second and third mere assertion of a future occurrence without reference to the will of the subject, other verb-phrases being compounded with the auxiliary shall. For a more detailed discrimination between will and shall, see shall, B., 2.
  • In such constructions will is sometimes found where precision would require shall. See shall, B., final note.
  • [Would is often used for will in order to avoid a dogmatic style or to soften blunt or harsh assertions, questions, etc.
  • In all its senses the auxiliary will may be used with an ellipsis of the following infinitive.
  • noun An abbreviation of the personal name William.
  • noun Wish; desire; pleasure; inclination; choice.
  • noun That which is wished for or desired; express wish; purpose; determination.
  • noun Wish; request; command.
  • noun Expressed wish with regard to the disposal of one's property, or the like, after death; the document containing such expression of one's wishes; especially, in law, the legal declaration of a person's intentions, to take effect after his death.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English willen, to intend to, from Old English willan; see wel- in Indo-European roots.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English willa; see wel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English wille, from Old English willa ("mind, will, determination, purpose, desire, wish, request, joy, delight, pleasure") (compare verb willian), from Proto-Germanic *wiljô (“desire, will”), from Proto-Indo-European *(e)welǝ- (“to choose, wish”). Cognate with Dutch wil, German Wille, Swedish vilja. The verb is not always distinguishable from Etymology 2, below.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English willen, wullen, wollen, from Old English willan, wyllan ("to will, be willing, wish, desire, be used to, to be about to"), from Proto-Germanic *wiljanan (“to desire, wish”), from Proto-Indo-European *(e)welǝ- (“to choose, wish”). Cognate with Dutch willen, Low German willen, German wollen, Swedish vilja, Latin velle ("wish", v) and Albanian vel ("to satisfy, be stuffed") .It is not always distinguishable from Etymology 1, above.

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Examples

  • I think i have a book on birds that might interest you..will go check it out..if so will send it to you.

    Constant Comments Anne Johnson 2009

  • I make minus the peppercorns..will try with that next time...thanks for the almost single..when you write, I will want to be among the first ones to read it!

    Almost Single bhags 2008

  • Guess I will love this egg curry..will have to try it soon Meera

    Irani Egg Curry Meera 2008

  • Update: Ashley has more details, but doesn't answer my question, although to my eyes there's an implication that the new aggregator will be even less platform agnostic than iPlayer - which Ashley says *will* support GNU/Linux....

    On-Demand OK, But How Demanding? glyn moody 2007

  • Update: Ashley has more details, but doesn't answer my question, although to my eyes there's an implication that the new aggregator will be even less platform agnostic than iPlayer - which Ashley says *will* support GNU/Linux....

    Archive 2007-11-01 glyn moody 2007

  • Still debating as to whether or not wellies will be required I have a fetching pair of pink croc wellies so maybe I *will* need them...

    Normal service will resume shortly Helen Keegan 2007

  • Still debating as to whether or not wellies will be required I have a fetching pair of pink croc wellies so maybe I *will* need them...

    Archive 2007-08-01 Helen Keegan 2007

  • Yes, a bunch of these will fail, but the ones that draw large audiences *will* be able to monetize down the line.

    Show Me the BUSINESS MODEL! - Publishing 2.0 2006

  • As a newbie to baking, this will be a challenge..will send the entry soon..

    WBB # 7 Baking for Breakfast 2006

  • A Go to the press; tell them ‘It’s a mystery’ why you were fired; and tell them that no one will ever know, thereby challenging them to investigate why you were *really* fired and ensuring that all the embarrassing details *will* come out;

    Firedoglake » Howie Klein’s Blue America: Weldon/Sestak PA-07 2006

Comments

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  • "Man does at all times only what he wills, and yet he does this necessarily. But this is due to the fact that he already IS what he wills." --Arthur Schopenhauer

    I.e.: You can want what you will, but you cannot will what you want. The fist cannot grasp itself, nor the eye behold its seeing.

    February 19, 2007

  • A parsing challenge: Will will will Will's will, will Will?

    September 9, 2007

  • Oroboros, I just don't understand why all this parsing hasn't given you a crashing headache by now. ;-)

    September 9, 2007