wills

Noun

will (plural wills)

1. One's independent faculty of choice; the ability to be able to exercise one's choice or intention.
   • Of course, man's will is often regulated by his reason.
2. The act of choosing to do something; a person’s conscious intent or volition.
   • Most creatures have a will to live.
3. One's intention or decision; someone's orders or commands.
   • Eventually I submitted to my parents' will.
4. Firmness of purpose, fixity of intent
   • Thus Mill’s case for the claim that happiness is the sole human end, put more carefully, is this: ‘Whatever is desired otherwise than as a means to some end beyond itself, and ultimately to happiness, is desired as itself a part of happiness, and is not desired for itself until has become so’...1998, John Skorupski,, Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Mill, John Stuart (1806–73)

   Synonyms:

   determination, firmness, resoluteness, resolve

5. A formal declaration of one's intent concerning the disposal of one's property and holdings after death; the legal document stating such wishes.
   • “Uncle Barnaby was always father and mother to me,” Benson broke in; then after a pause his mind flew off at a tangent. “Is old Hannah all right—in the will, I mean?”1928, Lawrence R. Bourne, chapter 1, in Well Tackled!

   Synonyms:

   testament, last will, last will and testament

6. (archaic) That which is desired; one's wish.
   • I auow by this most sacred head / Of my deare foster child, to ease thy griefe, / And win thy will [...].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

See all 22 meanings of will