"do what you will" meaning in English

See do what you will in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Phrase

Etymology: From Middle English do what thou wilt, from Old English þæt þū dōn wilt, þæs þe þū wille. Etymology templates: {{inh|en|enm|do what thou wilt}} Middle English do what thou wilt, {{inh|en|ang|þæt þū dōn wilt,þæs þe þū wille}} Old English þæt þū dōn wilt, þæs þe þū wille Head templates: {{head|en|phrase}} do what you will
  1. (dated, imperative) Granting permission for a person do whatever they want. Tags: dated, imperative
    Sense id: en-do_what_you_will-en-phrase-stdl36o4 Categories (other): English imperative sentences Disambiguation of English imperative sentences: 56 44
  2. (dated, subjunctive) Expressing that an outcome will not depend on what the person does. Tags: dated, subjunctive Related terms: fire at will, say what you will
    Sense id: en-do_what_you_will-en-phrase-j5BElCwt Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 19 81 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 6 94 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 5 95
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "enm",
        "3": "do what thou wilt"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English do what thou wilt",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ang",
        "3": "þæt þū dōn wilt,þæs þe þū wille"
      },
      "expansion": "Old English þæt þū dōn wilt, þæs þe þū wille",
      "name": "inh"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Middle English do what thou wilt, from Old English þæt þū dōn wilt, þæs þe þū wille.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
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      "expansion": "do what you will",
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "56 44",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English imperative sentences",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              0,
              16
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Do what you will; I wash my hands of it all.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Granting permission for a person do whatever they want."
      ],
      "id": "en-do_what_you_will-en-phrase-stdl36o4",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(dated, imperative) Granting permission for a person do whatever they want."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "dated",
        "imperative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "19 81",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "6 94",
          "kind": "other",
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          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "5 95",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
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        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
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          ],
          "text": "Do what you will, you'll never be able to wash all of this sticky gunk out of the crevices.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Expressing that an outcome will not depend on what the person does."
      ],
      "id": "en-do_what_you_will-en-phrase-j5BElCwt",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(dated, subjunctive) Expressing that an outcome will not depend on what the person does."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "4 96",
          "word": "fire at will"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "4 96",
          "word": "say what you will"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "dated",
        "subjunctive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "do what you will"
}
{
  "categories": [
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    "English imperative sentences",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English phrases",
    "English terms derived from Middle English",
    "English terms derived from Old English",
    "English terms inherited from Middle English",
    "English terms inherited from Old English",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
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      "args": {
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        "3": "do what thou wilt"
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      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ang",
        "3": "þæt þū dōn wilt,þæs þe þū wille"
      },
      "expansion": "Old English þæt þū dōn wilt, þæs þe þū wille",
      "name": "inh"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Middle English do what thou wilt, from Old English þæt þū dōn wilt, þæs þe þū wille.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "do what you will",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "fire at will"
    },
    {
      "word": "say what you will"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
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        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
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          ],
          "text": "Do what you will; I wash my hands of it all.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Granting permission for a person do whatever they want."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(dated, imperative) Granting permission for a person do whatever they want."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "dated",
        "imperative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English dated terms",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              0,
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          ],
          "text": "Do what you will, you'll never be able to wash all of this sticky gunk out of the crevices.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Expressing that an outcome will not depend on what the person does."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(dated, subjunctive) Expressing that an outcome will not depend on what the person does."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "dated",
        "subjunctive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "do what you will"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-07-20 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-07-06 using wiktextract (b70b34c and e7887d5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.