self-will
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of self-will
before 900; Middle English: one's own will, stubbornness; Old English: one's own will; see self, will 2
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.
“My self-will had to be abandoned because my self-will was killing me,” Irsay said.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 27, 2022
It also evokes the determination, the self-will, of countless immigrants who have chosen to make and call America their home.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2021
Thus, as Cooley’s film quickens and deepens, we get a fabulous running joke about the “inner voice,” a staple of American self-will since the days of Emerson.
From The New Yorker ● Jun. 21, 2019
At one point in the first novel, Outline, she remarks, “I had come to believe more and more in the virtues of passivity, and of living a life as unmarked by self-will as possible.”
From Slate ● May 25, 2018
Even unbridled self-will does little harm if it be an unbridled self-will to stand well with a progressive people.
From Body, Parentage and Character in History Notes on the Tudor Period by Furneaux Jordan
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.
