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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



49 words match “WILLFUL”

WILLFUL a. 2 definitions
Of set purpose; self-determined; voluntary; as, willful murder. Foxe. In willful poverty chose to lead his life. Chaucer. Thou to me Art all things under heaven, all places thou, Who, for my willful crime, art banished hence. Milton.
ASSAULT n.
An apparently violent attempt, or willful offer with force or violence, to do hurt to another; an attempt or offer to beat another, accompanied by a degree of violence, but without touching his person, as by lifting the fist, or a cane, in a threatening manner, or by striking at him, and missing him. If the blow aimed…
AVISE v.
[Obs.] Chaucer. Now therefore, if thou wilt enriched be, Avise thee well, and change thy willful mood. Spenser.
BARRATRY n.
A fraudulent breach of duty or willful act of known illegality on the part of a master of a ship, in his character of master, or of the mariners, to the injury of the owner of the ship or cargo, and without his consent. It includes every breach of trust committed with dishonest purpose, as by running away with the ship…
BATTERY n.
The unlawful beating of another. It includes every willful, angry and violent, or negligent touching of another's person or clothes, or anything attached to his person or held by him.
CAT n.
Cratch, Cratch cradle. -- To let the cat out of the bag, to tell a secret, carelessly or willfully. [Colloq.] -- Bush cat, the serval. See Serval.
CONCEALED a.
Concealed weapons (Law), dangerous weapons so carried on the person as to be knowingly or willfully concealed from sight, -- a practice forbidden by statute.
CONTUMACIOUS a.
Willfully disobedient to the summous or prders of a court. Blackstone.
CONTUMACY n.
A willful contempt of, and disobedience to, any lawful summons, or to the rules and orders of court, as a refusal to appear in court when legally summoned.
COOL a.
tly impudent; negligent of propriety in matters of minor importance, either ignorantly or willfully; presuming and selfish; audacious; as, cool behavior. Its cool stare of familiarity was intolerable. Hawthorne.
CRUELTY n.
A cruel and barbarous deed; inhuman treatment; the act of willfully causing unnecessary pain. Cruelties worthy of the dungeons of the Inquisition. Macualay.
CUSSEDNESS n.
Disposition to willful wrongdoing; malignity; perversity; cantankerousness; obstinacy. [Slang or Colloq., U. S.]
DEGENERACY n.
The act of becoming degenerate; a growing worse. Willful degeneracy from goodness. Tillotson.
DERELICT n.
A thing voluntary abandoned or willfully cast away by its proper owner, especially a ship abandoned at sea.
DERELICTION n.
A neglect or omission as if by willful abandonment. A total dereliction of military duties. Sir W. Scott.
DESERTION n.
a service, a cause, a party, a friend, or any post of duty; the quitting of one's duties willfully and without right; esp., an absconding from military or naval service. Such a resignation would have seemed to his superior a desertion or a reproach. Bancroft.
FALSIFICATION n.
Willful misstatement or misrepresentation. Extreme necessity . . . forced him upon this bold and violent falsification of the doctrine of the alliance. Bp. Warburton.
FARM n.
The term or tenure of a lease of land for cultivation; a leasehold. [Obs.] It is great willfulness in landlords to make any longer farms to their tenants. Spenser.
GIGLOT; GIGLET n.
A wanton; a lascivious or light, giddy girl. [Obs.] The giglet is willful, and is running upon her fate. Sir W. Scott.
GUILT n.
The criminality and consequent exposure to punishment resulting from willful disobedience of law, or from morally wrong action; teh state of one who has broken a moral or political law; crime; criminality; offense against right. Satan had not answer, but stood struck With guilt of his own sin. Milton.…
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