velleity
Americannoun
plural
velleities-
volition in its weakest form.
-
a mere wish, unaccompanied by an effort to obtain it.
noun
-
the weakest level of desire or volition
-
a mere wish
Etymology
Origin of velleity
First recorded in 1630–40; from Medieval Latin velleitās, equivalent to Latin velle “to be willing, want” + -itās -ity
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.
It was the least effort he could spend — a velleity — to appease them and avoid being sent to the gulag, or worse.
From Washington Post
And our being results not from velleities but from the real will.
From Project Gutenberg
All were born late enough to breathe the atmosphere of the new poetry young; all had poetical velleities, and a certain amount, if not of originality, of capacity to write poetry.
From Project Gutenberg
She is not a bookmaker of the worst kind; she evidently had wits and literary velleities; and she does illustrate the blind nisus of the time as already indicated.
From Project Gutenberg
Well, perhaps too many good fairies—good only to the pitch of velleity—buzzed and brushed, like muses, or pseudo-muses, about his brows.
From Project Gutenberg
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.
