Also 7 velleitie. [ad. med.L. velleitāt-, velleitās, f. L. velle to will, wish: see -ITY. Cf. F. velléité (16th c.), It. velleità, Sp. veleidad, Pg. velleidade.]
1. The fact or quality of merely willing, wishing or desiring, without any effort or advance towards action or realization.
1618. Bp. Hall, Contempl., N. T. (1634), 101. Thy word alone, thy beck alone, thy wish alone, yea, the least act of velleity from thee might have wrought this cure.
1662. Baxter, Saints’ R., IV. To Rdr. 831. We must distinguish … Between the simple Velleity of the Will, and the choice that followeth the Comparate act of the intellect.
1690. Norris, Beatitudes (1694), 105. By impotent willing meaning that natural Inclination or Velleity we have to every Good as such.
1768. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), I. 20. Velleity can scarce be called a power, for a power which never operates is no power at all.
1808. Bentham, Sc. Reform, 77. In your Lordship will is volition, clothed and armed with power—in me, it is bare inert velleity.
1838. New Monthly Mag., LII. 110. This singular exuberance of velleity for education must presuppose a corresponding qualification for the task.
1866. Lowell, Study Wind. (1870), 191. Châteaubriand … had the same harmless velleity of self-destruction. Ibid. (1867), Rousseau, Prose Wks. 1890, II. 250. He and all like him mistake emotion for conviction, velleity for resolve.
2. With a and pl. A mere wish, desire or inclination without accompanying action or effort.
Very common in the 17th c.; now somewhat rare.
1624. F. White, Repl. Fisher, 78. The antecedent will of God is only a velleitie or wishing that a thing might be.
1640. Bp. Reynolds, Passions, xvii. 180. They are onely Velleities and not Volitions: halfe and broken wishes, not whole desires.
1692. J. Norris, Curs. Reflect., 37. The same might also be illustrated from the Actions of the Will, some of which are perfect and compleat Determinations, others only Velleities or Endeavours. Ibid. (1710), Chr. Prud., vi. 229. The one loves it only in some respect or degree, with an incomplete Love or Velleity as ’tis call’d.
1740. Cheyne, Regimen, 315. We may have vehement Willings, Longings, Volitions, and Velleities.
1808. Bentham, Sc. Reform, 2. Preceding administrations reckoned this … in the number of their velleities: what they had been thinking of doing, your Lordship has done.
1841. Carlyle, in Froude, Life in Lond. (1884), I. 218. He had no fixed intentions, only rebellious impulses, blind longings and velleities.
1873. Browning, Red Cott. Nt.-cap, IV. 415. No matter what his least velleity, I was determined he should want no wish.
b. Const. with various preps., as after, against, for, of, towards (something). Also with to and inf.
1633. Ames, Fresh Suit agst. Ceremonies, II. 20. No imperfect velleities of good are so interpreted.
1652. N. Culverwel, Lt. Nature (1857), 268. Nature that has but some weak glimpses of Him, has but faint and languishing velleities after Him.
1680. H. Dodwell, Two Lett. (1691), 7. The designing the more noble end for the less noble … implies no volition, but only a velleity, for that which is more noble. Ibid., 48. Terrifying men from their sins, so as not only to make them entertain some strugling velleities against them [etc.].
1795. Hussey, in Burke, Corr. (1844), IV. 280. Some of her prelates have … showed a velleity to make a stand in the upper house.
1853. Grote, Greece, II. lxxxiv. XI. 102. The effect was not the less produced, of disgusting Dionysius with his velleities towards political good.
1861. Mill, Repr. Govt., 330. The executive, with their real but faint velleities of something better.
1887. Dublin Rev., July, 194. There is no reason to suspect the slightest velleity to bring any pressure to bear on the matter.
