or will I, nil I, etc., phr. (old).—Willing or unwilling, nolens volens, ‘Whether I will or not.’ As adj. = vacillating: see NILLY-WILLY and SHILLY-SHALLY.

1

  1563.  FOXE, Acts and Monuments (CATTLEY), viii. 556. WIL’D SHE, NIL’D SHE.

2

  1590.  SPENSER, The Fairie Queene, I. iii. 43.

        With foule reproaches and disdaineful spight
Her vildly entertaines, and, WILL or NILL,
Beares her away upon his courser light.

3

  1593.  SHAKESPEARE, Taming of the Shrew, ii. 1.

                    Your father hath consented
That you shall be my wife; your dowry ’greed on;
And WILL YOU, NILL YOU, I will marry you.

4

  1607.  BEAUMONT, The Woman-Hater, iii. 4.

          Pandar.  WILL SHE, NILL SHE, she shall
Come running into my house.

5

  1857.  C. KINGSLEY, Two Years Ago, x. If I thought myself bound to doctor the man WILLY-NILLY, as you do, I would certainly go to him.

6

  1877.  TENNYSON, Harold, v. 1.

        And someone saw thy WILLY-NILLY nun
Vying a tress against our golden fern.

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