Word.ws English Dictionary

do what you will

do what you will phrase: granting permission for a person to do whatever they want.

Phrase

do what you will

  1. (dated, imperative) Granting permission for a person to do whatever they want.
    • Do what you will; I wash my hands of it all.
  2. (dated, subjunctive) Expressing that an outcome will not depend on what the person does.
    • Do what you will, you'll never be able to wash all of this sticky gunk out of the crevices.

Origin of do what you will

From Middle English do what thou wilt, from Old English þæt þū dōn wilt, þæs þe þū wille.

Questions about do what you will

What does do what you will mean?
Do what you will means granting permission for a person to do whatever they want.
What part of speech is do what you will?
Do what you will is a phrase.

Words near do what you will in the dictionary

  1. do well for oneself
  2. do what
  3. do what I say, not what I do
  4. do what it says on the tin
  5. do what one does
  6. do what you will
  7. do with
  8. do with mirrors
  9. do without
  10. do wonders
  11. do you

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: do what you will (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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