nolens volens
Americanadverb
adverb
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
So far Poincar� has not made public what he thinks of this "dinky little plan," but, nolens volens, it seems he will have to let the British in.
From Time Magazine Archive
I thought of making him the Pretender, nolens volens, for he is too stupidly honest to look at the whole thing as a merry, and at the same time profitable, masquerade.
From Problematic Characters A Novel by Spielhagen, Friedrich
Guizot is unable to answer this question, and after long, vain efforts to find a solution of the enigma in historical circumstances, he returns, falls back nolens volens, upon the theory of human nature.
From Anarchism and Socialism by Plekhanov, Georgii Valentinovich
The office was hereditary, and was not usually desired, but like the post of sheriff in an English county it had to be accepted nolens volens.
From The Inhabitants of the Philippines by Sawyer, Frederic H.
In short, nolens volens, Vendel was obliged to open his mouth, and swallow what is erroneously called a thousand sweets, but is, in truth, a hundred thousand bitters.
From Hungarian Sketches in Peace and War Constable's Miscellany of Foreign Literature, vol. 1 by Jókai, Mór
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
