| / English Dictionary |
WILFUL
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Habitually disposed to disobedience and opposition
Synonyms:
froward; headstrong; self-willed; wilful; willful
Classified under:
Similar:
disobedient (not obeying or complying with commands of those in authority)
Derivation:
wilfulness (the trait of being prone to disobedience and lack of discipline)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Done by design
Example:
willful disobedience
Synonyms:
wilful; willful
Classified under:
Similar:
voluntary (of your own free will or design; done by choice; not forced or compelled)
Context examples:
Item, that after sundry japes and jokes the said brother John did lift up the said Mary Sowley and did take, carry, and convey her across a stream, to the infinite relish of the devil and the exceeding detriment of his own soul, which scandalous and wilful falling away was witnessed by three members of our order.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
All that I had ever seen in him of an unyielding, wilful spirit, I saw in her.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
It seemed like wilful ill-nature, or a voluntary penance, for on these occasions it was not merely a few formal inquiries and an awkward pause and then away, but he actually thought it necessary to turn back and walk with her.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
Lord Avon, said the squire, as a magistrate of the county of Sussex, it is my duty to tell you that a warrant is held against you for the wilful murder of your brother, Captain Barrington, in the year 1786.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Emma grieved that she could not be more openly just to one important service which his better sense would have rendered her, to the advice which would have saved her from the worst of all her womanly follies—her wilful intimacy with Harriet Smith; but it was too tender a subject.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
This man, whose clay was so plastic that he could live in any number of pigeonholes of human existence, she thought wilful and most obstinate because she could not shape him to live in her pigeonhole, which was the only one she knew.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Shouldst have crozier for staff and mitre for cap. Well, well, for your sake I will forgive the Socman and take vengeance on none but on my own wilful self who must needs run into danger's path.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Oh, dear me! cried my mother, turning from one of us to the other, in her pettish wilful manner, what a troublesome world this is, when one has the most right to expect it to be as agreeable as possible!
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
To such perseverance in wilful self-deception Elizabeth would make no reply, and immediately and in silence withdrew; determined, if he persisted in considering her repeated refusals as flattering encouragement, to apply to her father, whose negative might be uttered in such a manner as to be decisive, and whose behaviour at least could not be mistaken for the affectation and coquetry of an elegant female.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
In the days that swiftly followed she was no longer herself but a strange, puzzling creature, wilful over judgment and scornful of self- analysis, refusing to peer into the future or to think about herself and whither she was drifting.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
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