"Willy nilly" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... manikins on the wall; Squall after squall, Gust upon crowding gust, It sweeps them willy nilly like blown dust With glory ...
— Behind the Arras - A Book of the Unseen • Bliss Carman
... humble too—(he asked pardon, it was said, even of his own servants if he troubled them)—so I knew that no swashbuckling air on my part would do me anything but harm—(and, indeed, that was all laid aside, willy nilly, so soon as I came in)—since, like all humble men he esteemed the pride, even of kings, at exactly its proper worth, which is nothing at all. He was, too, a man of great spirituality, so I knew that my having come to St. Paul's as a novice and now wishing to leave it ...
— Oddsfish! • Robert Hugh Benson
... instinctive, automatic, blind, mechanical; unconscious, unwitting, unthinking; unintentional &c (undesigned) 621; impulsive &c 612. Adv. necessarily &c adv.; of necessity, of course; ex necessitate rei [Lat.]; needs must; perforce &c 744; nolens volens [Lat.]; will he nil he, willy nilly, bon gre mal gre [Fr.], willing or unwilling, coute que coute [Fr.]. faute de mieux [Fr.]; by stress of; if need be. Phr. it cannot be helped; there is no help for, there is no helping it; it will ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... obliged willy nilly to go with them, and, half-dragging and half-carrying me, they brought me by the path, which now became very steep, for some hundred yards without stopping, when suddenly coming to a stand, I found myself close before the door of some house or hut, I could not see which, through the ...
— The Purcell Papers - Volume III. (of III.) • Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
... ye make an honest sailor play bum-bailiff, and stick in a house, willy nilly, till money's found? Plague of your dry land! Give me a pitching ship and a rolling sea, and a gale whistling in my shrouds. Oh, my reins, my reins! give me a paper of tobacco, Mr. Hopkins, and a pipe to soothe this agony, ...
— A Set of Rogues • Frank Barrett
... some two thousand of them who cry 'Vive le Roi' for half a pistole, but would cry 'Vivent nous autres' for nothing. If the French land here they will turn against you at once. If the Parliament prevail they will submit, willy nilly. And your majesty may feel no ailment, yet have to be attended by the surgeon ...
— St George's Cross • H. G. Keene
... longer minding the row of graves. At dawn of Sunday a cannon woke the men, loud and startling, McDowell's signal gun, fired from Centreville, and announcing to the Federal host that the interrupted march, the "On to Richmond" blazoned on banners and chalked on trunks, would now be resumed, willy nilly the "rebel horde" on the southern bank ...
— The Long Roll • Mary Johnston
... I refused, the fellow dealt me a blow, and laid me down senseless, to bear me off willy nilly, but that good old Lucas Hansen brought mine uncle ...
— The Armourer's Prentices • Charlotte M. Yonge
... Willy nilly, Mr. Walpole was forever doing me a service. Now, in order to ignore the captain more completely, he sat him down to engage Mr. and Mrs. Manners. Comyn was soon hot in an argument with John Paul concerning the seagoing qualities of a certain frigate, every rope and spar of which ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill
... Tweeny; the guarded whistle which, on a less savage island, is sometimes assumed to be an indication to cook that the constable is willing, if the coast be clear. Tweeny, however, is engrossed, or perhaps she is not in the mood for a follower, so he climbs in at the window undaunted, to take her willy nilly. He is a jolly-looking labouring man, who answers to the name of Daddy, and—But though that may be his island name, we recognise him at once. He is Lord Loam, settled down to the new conditions, and enjoying life heartily as handy-man about the happy home. He is comfortably attired in skins. He ...
— The Admirable Crichton • J. M. Barrie |
