nill

[ nil ]

/ nɪl /

Archaic.

to be unwilling: will he, nill he.

to refuse or reject.

QUIZZES

Test your memory on these verbal firecrackers from the week of June 29 to July 5!

Question 1 of 7

anchorite

before 900; Middle English nillen, Old English nyllan, contraction of phrase ne willan; see no¹, will¹, willy-nilly

As it nis good, I nill say—or sain, instead of it is not good—I will not say.
Chaucer for Children|Mrs. H. R. Haweis
I take not on me to say we can command the saints, and, will they nill they, can draw corporal virtue from their blest remains.
The Cloister and the Hearth|Charles Reade
He means to represent it as a wilful act, and of course without any mixture of nill or nolens in it.
Hamlet|William Shakespeare
Will you nill you, the men-at-arms will follow me to victory!
Joan of Arc|Laura E. Richards

Will I, nill I, the ineffable thing has tied me to him; tows me with a cable I have no knife to cut.
Moby Dick; or The Whale|Herman Melville