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• willy
  willy

  noun

  willow.
• Willy
  Willy

  noun

  a male given name, form of William.

willy

¹ American  

[wil-ee] / ˈwɪl i /

Or willey

noun

• willies
  plural

1. willow.

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verb (used with object)

willied, willying

1. to willow (textile fibers).

willy ² American  

[wil-ee] / ˈwɪl i /

noun

Chiefly British Slang.

• willies
  plural

1. penis.

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Willy ³ American  

[wil-ee] / ˈwɪl i /

noun

1. a male given name, form of William.

2. a female given name.

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willy British  

/ ˈwɪlɪ /

noun

1. informal a childish or jocular term for penis

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• willies
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of willy¹

First recorded in 1825–35; special use of dialect willy, Old English wilige “basket” (originally one made of willow twigs); akin to willow

Origin of willy²

First recorded in 1900–05; possibly from Willy ( def. )

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

willy Willy willies

Consider buddleboy, bogeyman, bumboat man, flirter, higgler, pugger, muffleman, quarrel picker, spittle-maker, whiff-maker and willy man.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 14, 2025

Maybe the next time we see them all, W. will be giving Obama a wet willy at Trump’s second inauguration.

From Slate ● Jan. 9, 2025

For a while, companies like Apple wouldn’t let app developers run all willy nilly with the power to request our attention at any moment of the day.

From The Verge ● Aug. 5, 2022

Just within a couple of yards of the water’s edge, the species are abundant, the nomenclature mellifluous: buttercup, foxglove, leopard’s bane, nipplewort, forget-me-not, large-leaf aven, fringe cup, sticky willy.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 11, 2022

Then Wang Lung perceived suddenly out of his astonishment that all these men seized were as ignorant as he as to why they were thus being taken, willy nilly, whether they would or not.

From "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck

Formerly the proud owner of three Great Danes, Herman now spends about two hours a day at the dog park to tire out his rescued Jack Russell mix, Willy.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026

Willy Bermello, 75, the architect who designed the proposed Trump library in Miami, has his eye on remaking Cuba’s airports.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026

"I was brought into the world in case something happened to Willy."

From Barron's ● Aug. 21, 2026

Cost pressures and oversupply risks exist for data centers, said Willy Shih, a management practice professor at Harvard University.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026

Little Willy looked at the hand for a long time and then asked, in a whisper, “Does that mean ‘yes’?”

From "Stone Fox" by John Reynolds Gardiner

In theory, I agree with her, but the idea of sending anything that could be construed as offensive to another mother still gives me the willies.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026

Granted, discovering that her superfan collected one of her toenails does give the otherwise unflappable spirit a serious case of the willies.

From Salon ● Dec. 29, 2021

You can easily call it quits if it rains or if someone gets a sudden, intractable case of the willies.

From New York Times ● May 15, 2020

He has happily embraced a form of mass-market fame that gives so many in the fashion industry the willies.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 9, 2020

He thought of Ginny and her doll, both of which had given him the willies when he arrived, but now he kind of understood why she had that doll.

From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman

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