| 释义 |
wilfulness|ˈwɪlfʊlnɪs|
[f. wilful a.1 + -ness.]
1. The quality or character of being wilful; disposition to assert one's own will against reason, persuasion, etc.; determination to take one's own way; self-will, perversity, obstinacy, stubbornness.
c1200Trin. Coll. Hom. 75 Willfulnesse letteð þe mannes shrift, þat þincheð uuel þat man him wile neden his sinnes to forleten and fro þe deuel to gode turnen. 1375Barbour Bruce xviii. 176 On this wiss war thai nobill men Throu wilfulness all losit then. c1386Chaucer Knt.'s T. 2199 The contrarie of al this is wilfulnesse. 1412–20Lydg. Chron. Troy i. 3661 Sith sche wrouȝt only of wilfulnes, With-oute conseil or avysenes. 1547Act 1 Edw. VI c. 3 §11 Yf theie refuse of willfulnes and stubbernes to worke. 1583Whitgift in Strype Life (1718) App. 67 Your Lordship further semith to burthen me with Wyllfulness... There ys a Difference betwixt Willfullness and Constancie. 1674Owen Holy Spirit (1693) 238 A Child-like state, accompanied with, (1) Weakness. (2) Instability. And, (3) Wilfulness. 1729Butler Serm. Wks. 1874 II. 76 That obstinacy and wilfulness, which renders men so insensible to the motives of religion. 1838Lytton Alice ii. vi, She could..contradict, with a pretty wilfulness, his most favourite dogmas. 1870Lowell Study Wind., Carlyle (1871) 98 To confound it [sc. Will] with its irritable and purposeless counterfeit Wilfulness.
b. (with pl.) An instance of this, a wilful act.
1833Coleridge Table-t. 23 Oct., Whole volumes of Wordsworth's poems were formerly neglected..solely because of some few wilfulnesses, if I may so call them, of that great man. 1883Spurgeon Illustr. & Medit. 221 The rebellions and wilfulnesses of mankind.
2.
†a. Purpose, determination, resolution. Obs.
c1386Chaucer Melib. ⁋416 Thou shalt considere if thy myght and thy power may consenten and suffise to thy wilfulnesse and to thy conseillours. 1606G. W[oodcocke] Hist. Ivstine xii. 53 He..had slaine himselfe, had he not beene preuented by his friendes... He continued certaine daies after in this wilfulnesse to die. 1633T. James Voy. 18 In this wilfulnesse we continued till the 21.
b. Intentional character (of an act); the fact of being done on purpose.
1876Mozley & Whiteley Law Dict. s.v. Murder, The deliberateness and wilfulness, or, as we prefer to call it, the intention, which constitutes the crime of murder.
†3. Readiness of will, willingness, inclination.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. xxxix. (1495) cc v b/1 The wylfulnesse [of a horse] is know yf he is bolde of herte. 1408–9tr. Vegetius' De Re Milit. (MS. Digby 233) lf. 185/1 Newe knyȝtes ben chosen not onlich by strengþe & myȝt of body bote also by lusti wilfulnesse to werre.
†4. Liberty to do what one will; free will or choice; voluntary action. Obs.
c1460Sir R. Ros La Belle Dame 628 Falshode is so full of cursydnesse, That highe worschip may never haue enterprise Where hit rayneth, and hath the wylfulnysse. 1501in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. i. 68 [The lands should be redeemable] be dissent or wilfulnes of the said Ihonne or William his fader. 1530Palsgr. 289/1 Wylfulnesse, uoluntairete. 1553Bradford Serm. Repentance (1574) C ij b, Such workes as they neede not to do, but of their own voluntarines & wylfulnes (wylfulnes in deede). |