[OE. willung, f. willian WILL v.2: see -ING1.]
1. Wishing, desire, inclination. Obs., or arch. in conjunction with nilling (with mixture of sense 2). † Good willing, the action of wishing well to some one, favorable disposition, GOODWILL.
c. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., IV. v. (1890), 278. Þætte næniʓ biscopa hine oðrum forbære þurh unrehte willunge [orig. per ambitionem].
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., V. pr. ii. (1868), 152. In hem also is libertee of willyng and of nillynge. Ibid. (c. 1386), Clerk’s T., 263. My willynge Is as ye wole ne ayeyns youre likynge.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 5952. Whanne she assentith to my willyng.
1418–20. J. Page, Siege of Rouen, in Hist. Coll. Cit. Lond. (Camden), 23. He sayde, ‘What ys youre wyllynge?’
1556. Aurelio & Isab. (1608), Nvj. All the wyseste desires their favour and goode willinge.
1690. Norris, Beatitudes (1694), I. 105. By impotent willing meaning that natural Inclination … we have to every Good. Ibid. (1710), Chr. Prud., v. 218. Our willing of Evil is always with a mixture of nilling.
1865. Neale, Hymns on Paradise, 10. One in willing, one in nilling, Unity their spirits show.
2. The action or an act of exercising the will, volition; voluntary choice or determination, intention.
1340. Ayenb., 9. Wyþoute greate wille an willinge uor to harmi oþren.
1390. Gower, Conf., II. 319. Thou soffrest many a wrong doinge, And yit it is noght thi willinge.
c. 1425. Lucidarie (Schmitt, 1900), 4. Aungels & men, her þewis, willynges, seiynges.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, ii. 22. What haue we then to thinke of him, whose willings are powers, and whose thoughts are deedes?
1663–70. South, Serm. Col. ii. 2 (1715), IV. 296. One and the same Mind is both Being, Understanding, and Willing.
1754. Edwards, Freed. Will, I. iv. 27. The very willing is the doing.
1865. Bushnell, Vicar. Sacr., II. ii. (1868), 159. All the senses and sentiments, and willings, and wishes of their lives.
1892. Daily News, 2 Feb., 6/6. The two first [birth and marriage] are of human willing; the last [death] is purely … necessary, inevitable.
b. The action of influencing another by mere exercise of will, as in hypnotism. Also attrib.
1883. H. Donkin in Fortn. Rev., 1 Aug., 263–4. The well-known drawing-room game of ‘Willing’ (where one finds out a hidden object by means of more or less subtle muscular indications from another).
1883. Chamb. Jrnl., 83/1. The first division corresponds to the ‘willing-game’ described by Dr. Carpenter.
† 3. Command; injunction. Obs.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 5879. My modir … Nis not all at my willyng Ne doth not all my desiryng.
c. 1450–60. Bp. Grossetest’s Househ. Stat., in Babees Bk. (1868), 328. The wyllyng of god to be performed and fulfyllydde.
4. The action of bequeathing by will.
1847. Grote, Greece, II. xi. III. 183. Throughout most rude states of society the power of willing is unknown.
