wilful

Adjective

wilful (comparative more wilful or wilfuler or wilfuller, superlative most wilful or wilfulest or wilfullest)

1. (UK) Intentional; deliberate.
   • Knowingly or unknowingly, every therapist assumes that each client possesses the capacity to change through willful choice.2005, Irvin D. Yalom with Molyn Leszcz, The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy, page 182

   Synonyms:

   volitional, voluntary, advertent, conscious, witting, deliberate, intentional, on purpose, purposeful, purposive

2. (UK) Stubborn and determined.
   • Mary had taken the whim into her willful head, and Jane could not dissuade her.1893, Edwin Caskoden, When Knighthood Was in Flower, page 110
   • Let you not be taking it bad, Conchubor, but you’ll get little good seeing her this night, for with all my talking it’s wilfuler she’s growing these two months or three.1909, John M[illington] Synge, “Act I”, in Deirdre of the Sorrows: A Play, Churchtown: Cuala Press, published 1910, page 5

   Synonyms:

   obstinate, self-willed, headstrong