| 释义 |
free will, ˌfree-ˈwill, ˌfreeˈwill
[See free a. 19.]
1. (Best written as two words.) Spontaneous will, unconstrained choice (to do or act). Often in phr. of one's own free will, and the like. † in one's free will: left to or depending upon one's choice or election.
a1225Ancr. R. 8 Þeos & swuche oþre beoð alle ine freo wille to donne oþer to leten hwon me euer wule. 13..Myrour of lewed Men 4 in Min. P. Vernon MS. 407 God send vs thoght to his plesyng In whos fre wil hynges all thyng. c1510More Picus Wks. 11/2 Very happy is a christen man, sith that the victorie is..put in his owne frewill. 1590Spenser F.Q. i. viii. 5 Every dore of freewill open flew. 1611Bible Ezra vii. 13 All they..which are minded of their owne free-will to goe vp to Ierusalem. 1694Acc. Sev. Late Voy. ii. (1711) 42 Every Ship's master is left to his free will, whether he will sail into the Ice. 1712Steele Spect. No. 308 ⁋1 Whether she has not been frightened or sweetned by her Spouse into the Act she is going to do, or whether it is of her own free Will. 1873Symonds Grk. Poets vii. 190 Having of her own free⁓will exposed her life. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 133 They were allowed to wander at their own free will.
2. a. ‘The power of directing our own actions without constraint by necessity or fate’ (J.).
a1300Cursor M. 9408 Wijt and skill he gaf þam till, Might, and fairhid, and frewill. 1340Ayenb. 86 Þe uerste is uri-wyl huer-by he may chyese and do uryliche oþer þet guod oþer þet kuead. c1374Chaucer Boeth. iv. pr. vi. 104 (Camb. MS.) Of the knowynge and predestinacion diuine and of the lyberte of fre wille. 1508Fisher 7 Penit. Ps. cxlii. Wks. (1876) 259 He made vs and endued vs with reason and frewyll. 1538Starkey England i. ii. 28 Frewyl can not be wythout knolege, both of the gud and of the yl. 1654Hobbes Liberty, Necess., etc. (1841) 1 The third way of bringing things to pass, distinct from necessity and chance, namely, freewill. 1700J. A. Astry tr. Saavedra-Faxardo I. 205 Such variety of Events, as fortune produces, or free-will prepares. 1849Robertson Serm. Ser. i. ii. (1866) 22 Without free-will there could be no human goodness.
b. In a bad sense: Arbitrary or licentious will.
1514Barclay Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (Percy Soc.) 34 In stede of vertue, ruleth frewyll & lust! 1547Salesbury Welsh Dict., Mympwy, Frewyll.
3. a. attrib. (in free-will offering) = given readily or spontaneously.
1535Coverdale Ps. liii[i]. 6 A frewil offeringe wil I geue the. 1611Bible Ps. cxix. 108 Accept, I beseech thee, the freewil offrings of my mouth. 1878R. B. Smith Carthage 44 The free-will offerings of their golden ornaments by the Libyan women.
b. attrib. and Comb. (sense 2). Free Will Baptist: a member of a North American sect, of Welsh origin, of Arminian Baptists.
c1575Fulke Confut. Doctr. Purgatory (1577) 13 The free will men of our time. 1627S. Ward Christ All in All 13 To all..merit and freewill-mongers. 1732Swift Advantages Repeal. Sacr. Test 6 Of the three Judges on each Bench, the first may be a Presbyterian, the second a Free-Will Baptist, and the third a churchman. 1816W. Bentley Diary 19 May (1914) IV. 389 In Salem, the Free Will Baptists had an Immersion. 1823Baptist Mag. IV. 32 Some who usually assembled with those denominated Free-will Baptists. 1847H. Howe Hist. Coll. Ohio 348 The village contains..1 Free Will Baptist, 1 Methodist and 1 Universalist church. 1889‘Mark Twain’ Connecticut Yankee xxxi. 398 My first wife was a Free Will Baptist. 1966R. G. Torbet Hist. Baptists (rev. ed.) x. 285 The Freewill Baptist periodical, The Morning Star, became so vocal against slavery that the printing establishment..was twice refused the privilege of incorporation.
Hence free-ˈwilled a., having the faculty of free-will; free-ˈwiller, a contemptuous term for one who believes in the doctrine of free-will, an Arminian; free-ˈwillist rare, a believer in free-will, a ‘libertarian’; † free-ˈwilling a. (in Coverdale), spontaneous, giving (or given) freely.
1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. 889 Peccability arises from the necessity of imperfect *freewilled beings left to them⁓selves. 1709Prior Ode to Col. Villiers, In vain we think that free-will'd Man has pow'r.
1685Bunyan Pharisee & Publ., Wks. 1737 II. 681 So again, the *Free-willer, he will ascribe all to God. 1709Strype Ann. Ref. I. lii. 562 Using therein the new coined phrase of free-willers. 1732–38Neal Hist. Purit. (1822) I. 90 Besides these free-willers it seems there were some few in prison for the gospel that were Arians. 1814Chron. in Ann. Reg. 534 Freewillers were persecuted as heretics.
1535Coverdale Exod. xxxv. 29 The children of Israel brought *fre-wyllynge offerynges. ― 1 Chron. xxx. 9 And y⊇ people were glad that they were fre wyllinge: for they gaue it with a good wyll..vnto the Lorde.
1867Bagehot in Fortn. Rev. Nov. 522 Every *Freewillist holds that [etc.]. |