witting
/ˈwɪtɪŋ
/adjective
1Done in full awareness or consciousness; deliberate: the witting and unwitting complicity of the institutions...
- Both films feature a friend who helps eliminate the protagonist's problems via murder, and, in the process, gains the witting or unwitting complicity of the hero.
- The top bankers and their top legal firms are all part of a very deliberate and witting money laundering apparatus.
- Whether this is a witting or an unwitting acting choice, or a thematic directorial decision to make us see that Kate is only playing ‘The Shrew,’ it throws the entire play off balance.
1.1(Of a person) conscious or aware of the full facts of a situation: a witting accomplice...
- Could there have been any other witting leaders?
- I have heard the number ‘150,’ but we should think in terms of much larger numbers, including the additional witting and unwitting accomplices aiding and abetting the enemy.
- The government never explains why it is precisely those who oppose the government's policies from the left who represent witting or unwitting allies of terrorism.
Derivatives
wittingly
/ adverb everyone, wittingly or otherwise, will become involved...
- In this play, Oscar Wilde wittingly expresses his view of the traditional institution of marriage and tests a young couple's fidelity.
- He pulls back the curtain to reveal a magnificent charade in which everyone is wittingly or unwittingly complicit in the world's most extended re-enactment.
- Any good agency would have sufficient checks in place to ensure they don't place, either wittingly or unwittingly, someone not qualified to do the job.
Origin
Late Middle English: from wit2 + -ing2.