will-less

[ wil-lis ]

adjective

1. having or exerting no will:

   a timid, will-less little man.

2. done or occurring without the will; involuntary:

   a will-less compliance.

3. leaving no will; intestate:

   to die will-less.

Other Words From

• will-less·ly adverb
• will-less·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of will-less¹

First recorded in 1740–50

Example Sentences

Right now the future just looks like a big Will-less blank because it’s still in the future.

From Slate

“They deal entirely with the physical world; they throw stones, they move objects, they smash dishes; Mrs. Foyster at Borley Rectory was a long-suffering woman, but she finally lost her temper entirely when her best teapot was hurled through the window. Poltergeists, however, are rock-bottom on the supernatural social scale; they are destructive, but mindless and will-less; they are merely undirected force. Do you recall,” he asked with a little smile, “Oscar Wilde’s lovely story, ‘The Canterville Ghost’?”

From Literature

These boys and girls were will-less, their speech flat, their gestures vague, their personalities devoid of anger, hope, laughter, enthusiasm, passion, or despair.

From Literature

Shall we as a people continue to be confronted at every turn by the dull countenance of the imbecile, the inevitable product of a bad parental mating; or the feeble body and the clouded intellect of the child sprung from a parentage of polluted blood; or the furtive cunning of the born criminal, the will-less mind of the bred degenerate, or the shiftless spawn of the pauper?

From Project Gutenberg

The little men at Washington are will-less in the conflict.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• compulsory
• forced
• spontaneous
• uncontrolled
• unintentional