nill
/nɪl/
nill verb: to be unwilling; will not (+ infinitive).
Verb
nill (third-person singular simple present nills, present participle nilling, simple past and past participle nilled or (obsolete) nould)
- To be unwilling; will not (+ infinitive).
- I here auow thee neuer to forſake.
Ill weares he armes, that nill them vſe for Ladies ſake.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 465 - What I nill tell, you aske (quoth ſhe) in vaine,
Nor mou’d by praier, nor conſtraind by powre[…]1600, [Torquato Tasso], “The Twelfth Booke of Godfrey of Bulloigne”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold]...
- I here auow thee neuer to forſake.
- To be unwilling.
- I must indeed abide the Doom of Men, whether I will or I nill:[…]1955 October 20, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, “Appendix A”, in The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of The Lord of the Rings […], New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published December...
- To reject, refuse, negate.
- Certes (ſayd he) I n’ill thine offred grace,
Ne to be made ſo happy doe intend[…].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 280
- Certes (ſayd he) I n’ill thine offred grace,
Noun (1)
nill
Noun (2)
nill (uncountable)
- Synonym of zinc oxide, particularly white forms used in medicine and cosmetics.
- Synonyms:
- zinc oxide, particularly white forms used in medicine and cosmetics
Proper noun capitalized: Nill
Nill (plural Nills)
- A surname.
nill meaning in Urdu
nill in Urdu
- انکار کرنا
Synonyms of nill
- zinc oxide
- particularly white forms used in medicine and cosmetics
Forms of nill
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | nills |
| present participle | nilling |
| past participle | nilled |
| past | nilled |
| past participle (obsolete) | nould |
| past (obsolete) | nould |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Nills |
Origin of nill
From Middle English nillen, from Old English nyllan (“to not want”), corresponding to ne + will. Cognate with Old Frisian nelle. Not directly related to Latin nolo, which is an independent construction of the same manner, but the morphemes that compound both verbs are cognates.
Compare Irish néal and Scottish Gaelic neul (“star, light”). Compare nebula.
From Medieval Latin nil and nihil (“nothing”) to represent German nichts and nix (“nothing”), confused with Latin nix (“snow, snow-white thing”), used for white forms of zinc oxide. Doublet of nihil album.
Words formed from nill
Words that rhyme with nill
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- chill
- drill
- Seville
- will
- skill
- still
- frill
- mil
- sill
- swill
- fulfill
- goodwill
- till
- until
- brazil
- downhill
- prill
- quadrille
- shill
- shrill
- thrill
- Chapel Hill
- jill
- McGill
- squill
- trill
- uphill
- Walton-on-the-Hill
- Baskerville
- dill
- grille
- he'll
- instill
- Ithkuil
- krill
- manille
- nil
- phil
- purple pill
- refill
- remill
- rill
- thill
- twill
- vill
- vril
- 'til
- 'twill
Questions about nill
- What does nill mean?
- Nill means to be unwilling; will not (+ infinitive).
- What is nill in Urdu?
- Nill in Urdu is انکار کرنا. See Nill meaning in Urdu.
- What part of speech is nill?
- Nill can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce nill?
- Nill is pronounced /nɪl/.
- What is the past tense of nill?
- The past tense of nill is nilled.
Words near nill in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: nill (page history and authors); Nill (page history and authors); nill (Urdu Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “nill.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nill. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.