adv. and a. Also 7 wille nille, 8 willi nilhi. [= will I, nill I (he, ye) ‘be I (he, ye) willing, be I (he, ye) unwilling’: see WILL v.1 VI, NILL v.]
A. adv. Whether it be with or against the will of the person or persons concerned; whether one likes it or not; willingly or unwillingly, nolens volens.
1608. Middleton, Trick to Catch Old One, I. ii. Thou shalt trust me spite of thy teeth, furnish me with some money wille nille.
1797. Mrs. Berkeley, Poems G. M. Berkeley, Pref. p. ccxxix. But her Ladyship would, willi nilhi, constantly join the one who drank the waters every morning, and converse with her.
1807. W. Irving, Salmag., ix. (1824), 145. He was sure, willy nilly, to be drenched with a deluge of decoctions.
1818. J. Brown, Psyche, 121. From whence it follows, will y’ nill y’, The thought of your’s is mighty silly.
1884. A. Griffiths, Chron. Newgate, II. vii. 306. He … conceived an idea of carrying her off and marrying her willy nilly at Gretna Green.
1898. L. Stephen, Stud. Biogr., II. vii. 272. You are engaged in the game willy-nilly, and cannot be a mere looker-on.
B. adj. 1. That is such, or that takes place, whether one will or no.
1877. Tennyson, Harold, V. i. And someone saw thy willy-nilly nun Vying a tress against our golden fern.
1880. Lionel Tennyson, in Cornhill Mag., Feb., 182. All willy-nilly spinsters went to the canine race to be consoled for the evils of imperfect civilisation.
1882. Tennyson, Promise of May, II. 119. If man be only A willy-nilly current of sensations.
¶ 2. erron. Undecided, shilly-shally.
1883. Galton, Hum. Faculty, 57. The willy-nilly disposition of the female in matters of love is as apparent in the butterfly as in the man.
1898. Besant, Orange Girl, II. vi. Let us have no more shilly shally, willy nilly talk.
