Nills

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Archaic term meaning to be unwilling or to refuse, used as the opposite of will in phrases like will or nill
2. Old-fashioned verb describing someone who does not want something, the counterpart of being willing
3. Obsolete word for being unwilling or declining to do a thing, found chiefly in the expression will he nill he

Etymology: "Nills" is the third-person singular present of "nill," a verb meaning "to be unwilling" or "to refuse." It is a plain formation from Old English "nyllan," which joins "ne," meaning "not," with "will." Its ancestry runs back through Middle English "nillen," so the word is essentially a negated "will," a compound built from two very ordinary parts of English. Its partner in meaning is "will" itself, which appears in the old pairing "will or nill," meaning "whether one wishes it or not." The phrase survives in older English writing and shows how the verb was once used: one could be willing or unwilling, and the two verbs stood side by side. Scholars note that Latin "nolo," with the same sense, was not borrowed from English or related by direct descent; the two languages built their words for "not wanting" separately from similar components.

Synonyms: refuses, declines, rejects

Antonyms: wills, wishes