wilful

Word family

wil·ful British EnglishBrE, willful American English /ˈwɪlfəl/ adjectiveadj

1 STUBBORNcontinuing to do what you want, even after you have been told to stop – used to show disapproval 任性的；固执的〔含贬义〕

a wilful child

任性的孩子

2. wilful damage/disobedience/exaggeration etc DELIBERATELYdeliberate damage etc, when you know that what you are doing is wrong 故意损害/违抗/夸大其词等

Examples from the Corpus

wilful damage/disobedience/exaggeration etc• He then smashed up his cell and began his detention with a three month sentence for assault and wilful damage.• Unbelievably, they were later fined for, respectively, wilful damage and assault, and obstructing the police.

—wilfully adverbadv

—wilfulness noun [uncountableU]

Examples from the Corpus

wilful• Indeed, her doubt could be described as wilful blindness.• She claimed to be doing it only for Jeeta, but there was real, wilful contrariness in it, I suspected.• And just as her peculiar, rebellious, wilful escapade had gone wrong ... so had theirs.• Sometimes kids who are described as difficult or wilful just need a little extra love and attention.• He lived a very wilful life, and the fear of chaos had always haunted him from childhood.• Billy is a very wilful little boy who's constantly being punished for not doing as he's told.• Actually the quarrel was largely due to Apollinaire's careless use of terms and to a rather wilful misunderstanding on the part of Boccioni.• The coroner brought in a verdict of wilful murder.• Partly, no doubt, the figures include at least some wilful or at least entirely feckless credit misusers.• For doubt, full grown, is not a lapse of memory but a wilful refusal to remember.

wil·ful adjectiveadj

Chinese

Syllable

Corpus