will, to desire, signify one’s will to. Webster, Sir T. Wyatt (Arundel), ed. Dyce, p. 188; Surrey, tr. of Aeneid, ii, l. 50.
willow, worn as an emblem of unhappy love. Much Ado, ii. 1. 194, 225; ‘Wear the willow garland’, 3 Hen. VI, iv. 1. 100; ‘A green willow must be my garland’, Othello, iv. 3. 50.
wilsome, wylsome, wandering, devious; ‘Wylsome wayes’, Morte Arthur, leaf 124. 11; bk. vii, c. 22. In Scotland ‘wilsome’ is used in the sense of bewildered, lonely, dreary, desolate; see EDD. (s.v. Will, adj. 1 (3)). ME. wylsum: ‘Mony wylsum way he rode’ (Gawayne, 689); wilsom (Wars Alex. 4076, 5565). Icel. villr, bewildered, erring, astray.
wimble, quick, lively, active. Spenser, Shep. Kal., March, 91; Marston, Antonio, Pt. I, iii. 2 (Feliche). In prov. use in the north of England and the Midlands, see EDD. (s.v. Wimble, adj.).
winbrow, an eyebrow. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 270, back, 12. Low G. winbrāwe, an eyebrow (Lübben); cp. OHG. wintbrāwa, wintbrā, winbrā, an eyebrow (Schade).
windlace, a winding or circuitous way; ‘By slie driftes and windlaces aloofe’, Mirror for Mag., Glocester, st. 46; ‘Fetching a windlesse’, Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 270); windlasses, pl., Hamlet, ii. 1. 65; spelt winlas, Golding, Metam. vii. 784 (= L. gyrum).
windore, a window. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, § 59; Diogenes, § 120; Butler, Hud. ii. 2. 369. Still heard in Glouc. (EDD.).
window-bars, lattice-work, cross-work of narrow bands across a woman’s bosom. Timon, iv. 3. 116.
wind-sucker, a kestrel; used fig. for a covetous person. B. Jonson, Sil. Woman, i (end). In prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Wind, sb.1 1 (40)). See Nares.
winlas; see [windlace].