will

verb

1. (auxiliary, no-past-participle)Used to express the future tense, sometimes with an implication of volition or determination when used in the first person. Compare shall.

   “Do not forget, will you?”

   “Will you be doing the shopping this evening? If so, will you do mine too, please?”

   “Won't you have another glass of wine? — No, I think I’ll go to bed.”

   “Can somebody lend me a hand? — I will.”

   “I'm going to quit smoking. I really will!”

2. (auxiliary, no-past-participle)To be able to, to have the capacity to.

   “Unfortunately, only one of these gloves will actually fit over my hand.”

3. (auxiliary, no-past-participle)Expressing a present tense or perfect tense with some conditional or subjective weakening: "will turn out to", "must by inference".

   “He will be home by now. He always gets home before 6 o'clock.”

   “I can't find my umbrella. I will've left it at home this morning.”

   “I’ll kill anybody who touches my car.”

   ““That will be five zloty.” I reached into my pocket and came up with some coins.”

   “Unless she diverted on the ten minute walk home, she’ll have got home at about half past.”

4. (auxiliary, no-past-participle)To habitually do (a given action).

   “Boys will be boys.”

   “People will talk.”

   “I will fall in love with the wrong women time and again.”

   “The shapes of clouds will often remind us of animals.”

   “Most nights I'll read a little before going to sleep.”

5. (auxiliary, no-past-participle)To choose or agree to (do something); used to express intention but without any temporal connotations, often in questions and negation.

   “Will you marry me?”

   “What will you drink?”

   “I’ve told him three times, but he won’t take his medicine.”

6. (literary, no-past-participle, transitive, uncommon)To wish, desire (something).

   “Do what you will.”

   “God willed it.”

   “If thou wilt fare well at meat and meal, come and follow me.”

   “Twelfe Night, Or what you will (original spelling)”

   “And behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.”

7. (archaic, intransitive, no-past-participle)To wish or desire (that something happen); to intend (that).

   “Consider, if you will, the possibility that the sherry glasses were misplaced accidentally.”

   “the disciples cam to Jesus sayinge unto hym: where wylt thou that we prepare for the to eate the ester lambe?”

   “see God's goodwill toward men, hear how generally his grace is proposed, to him, and him, and them, each man in particular, and to all. 1 Tim. ii. 4. "God will that all men be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth."”

8. (archaic, no-past-participle)Implying will go.

   “I’ll to England.”

9. (intransitive, transitive)To instruct (that something be done) in one's will.
10. (transitive)To bequeath (something) to someone in one's will (legal document).

    “He willed his stamp collection to the local museum.”

11. (transitive)To exert one's force of will (intention) in order to compel, or attempt to compel, something to happen or someone to do something.

    “All the fans were willing their team to win the game.”

    “They willed me say so, madam.”

    “Send for music, / And will the cooks to use their best of cunning / To please the palate.”

    “The white feminist and white gay movement have willed themselves ignorant of black feminist and black gay experiences.”

noun

1. One's independent faculty of choice; the ability to be able to exercise one's choice or intention.

   “Of course, man's will is often regulated by his reason.”

2. The act of choosing to do something; a person’s conscious intent or volition.

   “Most creatures have a will to live.”

   “The father chose the name and could change it later at his will.”

   “The episode’s unwillingness to fully commit to the pathos of the Bart-and-Laura subplot is all the more frustrating considering its laugh quota is more than filled by a rollicking B-story that finds Homer, he of the iron stomach and insatiable appetite, filing a lawsuit against The Frying Dutchman when he’s hauled out of the eatery against his will after consuming all of the restaurant’s shrimp (plus two plastic lobsters).”

3. One's intention or decision; someone's orders or commands.

   “Eventually I submitted to my parents' will.”

   “In the first place, although many people wanted nationalisation and it became the will of Parliament, there were many other people who did not want it, have never willingly accepted it, and never will.”

4. Firmness of purpose, fixity of intent

   “...surely the link could not have been with Churchill the brilliant, gallant and steadfast wartime leader who, by dint of character, will and language, turned near defeat into victory.”

5. A formal declaration of one's intent concerning the disposal of one's property and holdings after death; the legal document stating such wishes.

   ““Uncle Barnaby was always father and mother to me,” Benson broke in; then after a pause his mind flew off at a tangent. “Is old Hannah all right—in the will, I mean?””

6. (archaic)That which is desired; one's wish.

   “I auow by this most sacred head / Of my deare foster child, to ease thy griefe, / And win thy will [...].”

7. (archaic)Desire, longing. (Now generally merged with later senses.)

   “He felt a great will to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.”

8. A weak-side linebacker.

   “Will linebacker drops to turn-in, QB dropping dumps the ball off to HB.”

   “Our Will linebacker, because he is away from the formation or to the split end, should be a great pursuit man and pass defender. Will covers the back side hook zone on the weak side.”

name

1. A diminutive of the male given name William or, less often, other given names beginning with Wil-, such as Wilfred or Willard, from the Germanic languages; also used as a formal given name.

   “Make but my name thy loue, and loue that ſtill, / And then thou loueſt me for my name is Will.”

   “One of his neighbours opposite, a nice old guy with a stoop and a horrible little Yorkshire terrier, called him Bill - always had done and presumably always would, right up till the day he died. It actually irritated Will, who was not, he felt, by any stretch of the imagination, a Bill. Bill wouldn't smoke spliffs and listen to Nirvana. So why had he allowed this misapprehension to continue? Why hadn't he just said, four years ago, "Actually my name is Will"?”

   “Jada Pinkett Smith found herself at the center of conflict when her husband Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars ceremony March 27. Rock joked about Pinkett Smith’s shaved head – a look she has said is more than a style preference.”

   “Will Stancil was a relatively anonymous researcher at the University of Minnesota until he forced his way into circles of intellectual and political elites on Twitter during the Biden reelection campaign.”

2. A surname originating as a patronymic.