Ill-willing

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Having or displaying malevolence or ill-will.

    "I don't know how— but it will make me uneasy, if I am to make up my accounts to you: for so well known is your love to us, that though you would no more do in unjust thing, than, by God's grace, we should desire you; yet this same ill-willing world might think it was like making up accounts to one's self."

Example

More examples

"I don't know how— but it will make me uneasy, if I am to make up my accounts to you: for so well known is your love to us, that though you would no more do in unjust thing, than, by God's grace, we should desire you; yet this same ill-willing world might think it was like making up accounts to one's self."

Etymology

From Middle English *il-willynge, ill willand, il-willande, equivalent to ill + willing.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.