at will
53
3.2
- idiom
- /æt wɪl/
:
a voluntad
- "We believe that we can start it and stop it at will, but the fact is, we have never tried.
- manipulate at will
- move at will
- return at will
Public may build infrastructure and buildings at will.
- Public may build infrastructure and buildings at will.
- But you can to a large degree change those faces at will.
- The Christians borrowed weapons from this Armory at will, right?
- Also has a mustache that can stretch and move at will.
- That means a whole bunch of things, markets are can be shaped, moved up or down at will based on people's preferences.
- You're it, you control your body, your business can be delegated, you could print money at will if you just figure out the right things.
- The ability for people to reach into their own minds and turn down their own pain and suffering at will.
- Every one of your core individuals now has a human host of its own to live in and destroy at will.
- So you can draw cartoons now at will, because this spatial part of the the solution to this wave is clear.
- That takes practice, but we can initiate it at will on demand.
- And this is the power of the realms that are unseen, that cannot be conjured or tracked or called upon at will.
Examples
-
It changed science fundamentally in its principles of what we are able at will to do within our Physiology.
-
If I had been able to come and go at will, it might have been an acceptable cheap hotel room.
Fiction book (2001) -
You're free to move forward at will.
-
We can reactivate it at will.
-
Soon you'll be able to change at will.
-
That means we are able at will to change the chemistry and with that the neurology of our brain.
-
This creates a control system that allows us to switch on genetic programmes at will so the cells can't escape.
-
With substantial assets in cattle that could be sold at will, Milton could consider various other survival-enhancing options.
Academic text (1994) -
An external power might be able to undermine state legitimacy, but it cannot restore it at will.
Academic text (2013) -
He can access his email at will, whether at home or on the go.
Synonyms
569
1.0
Whenever it is convenient for you
41
3.6
Free to do what you want without rules stopping you
At any time you want
At any time that something happens
In a way that shows strong feeling and no holding back
How Free
Surface Forms
Morphology
at + will
The meaning 'whenever/as often as one wants' follows logically from 'at' + 'will' understood as 'according to one's will/desire', so there is a clear compositional link; however, the phrase is a fixed adverbial collocation and relies on the noun sense of 'will' (not the future auxiliary), which may not be immediately obvious to a B1 learner without exposure. Cross-linguistic parallels (e.g. Spanish a voluntad, French à volonté) increase predictability but do not make the expression fully transparent.
Etymology
At will may come from an old use of will meaning 'wish' or 'desire'. Picture someone who can act whenever they 'wish'—they do things at will, so today the phrase means 'whenever one wants' or 'without restriction'.