willer
(ˈwɪlə(r))
[f. will v.2 + -er1.]
One who wills, in various senses.
1. One who desires; a wisher. Chiefly, now only, in obj. or advb. comb., as evil-willer, good-willer, ill-willer, well-willer, q.v. So † cursed willer, after evil-willer.
| c 1395 Plowman's T. 228 Such willers of worship must evil fele. Ibid. 780 Such willers wit is nat worth a neld. c 1586 C'tess Pembroke Ps. lxxxix. viii, Not closly under⁓min'd by cursed willer, Nor overthrown by foe in open fight. |
2. One who exercises his will; one who sets himself with conscious intention to do something; a voluntary agent.
| 1435 Misyn Fire of Love ii. x. 96 Qwho-euer wyll to it myght cum, & ȝit it is not of ylk rynnar ne willar, bot of criste lufand, lyftand & takand [cf. Rom. ix. 16]. 1534 Act 26 Hen. VIII, c. 13 §1 Willers and wurkars of the same. 1549 Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. James iv. 1–6 There is nothynge harde to the louing willer. a 1677 Barrow Serm. Luke xxii. 42 Wks. 1686 III. 45 Who the willer is to whom we must submit. 1678 Norris Coll. Misc. (1699) 289 Every Dependence of an irregular Act upon the Will, is not such as derives Guilt upon the Willer. 1850 Kingsley Alton Locke xvi, Nature was spoken of as the willer and producer of all the marvels which he describes. 1872 Dublin Rev. Apr. 368 The Fathers..fixing their eyes upon the oneness of the thing willed and the oneness of the willer. |
b. spec. One who influences another by mere exercise of will, as in hypnotism.
| 1882 19th Cent. June 892 A much larger percentage of successful results..occurred when a near relative of the guesser was the ‘willer’. |