voluntary

Pluralvoluntaries

1. 1
   adjective

   Done, given, or carried out of one's own free will, without compulsion.

   The witness gave a voluntary statement to the police that afternoon.

   Employees made voluntary contributions to the relief fund.

   Similaroptional, willing, unforced, discretionary

   Oppositecompulsory, mandatory, obligatory, forced

   Note

   The core sense, and the one the Latin carried into English: voluntārius, "of free will," from voluntās, "will," and ultimately volo, "to will." It displaced the native Old English selfwille. Its weight is moral as much as practical. Nathaniel William Taylor told Yale College in 1828 that sin pertains exclusively to voluntary action. In everyday use it pairs with what is offered: a voluntary statement, gift or contribution.

2. 2
   adjective

   Done by deliberate design or intention rather than by accident.

   Investigators concluded the fire was voluntary, set with clear intent.

   The omission was voluntary, a deliberate choice to withhold the figures.

   Similardeliberate, intentional, willful, conscious

   Oppositeaccidental, unintentional, inadvertent

   Note

   Here the stress falls on intent rather than on freedom from pressure, and its firmest home is the law. Voluntary manslaughter is a killing done with intent. A man who kills another by accident while lopping a tree has not committed it. To tell this from the free-will meaning, ask what the opposite would be: accidental points to this sense, and compelled points to that one.

3. 3
   adjective

   Performed or undertaken without payment, typically as a service to others.

   Many retirees take up voluntary roles in local charities.

   The hospital relies on voluntary staff to run its gift shop.

   Similarunpaid, charitable

   Oppositepaid, salaried

4. 4
   adjective

   Possessing the capacity to will or choose; having the faculty of volition.

   Philosophers debated whether animals are voluntary agents or driven purely by instinct.

   A voluntary soul, in this account, originates its own actions.

   Similarfree

   Note

   A word for the capacity rather than the act: the being itself is able to will. Richard Hooker, in Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie (1594), argues that God worked "not as a necessary, but a voluntary agent," intending and decreeing beforehand. Its natural partner is agent. Its natural opposite is necessary, describing what acts because it must rather than because it chooses.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A brief musical piece for one instrument, frequently improvised in part.

   The recital opened with a lively voluntary on the harpsichord.

   Several voluntaries were performed between the readings.

   Note

   Church music is the natural setting for this sense. A voluntary is a short solo piece, most often for organ, played before, during or after a service, often with room for improvisation. Organists play, improvise or compose a voluntary, and a service may have an opening or closing one. The plural is voluntaries.

6. 6
   adjective

   Relating to voluntarism, the doctrine favoring freely given action or support over compulsion or state control.

   The pamphlet defended voluntary principles in education.

   Nineteenth-century reformers championed a voluntary approach to funding religion.

   Note

   Church politics gave this sense its sharpest edge. A voluntary church stands in distinction from an established or state church and rests on its members' support rather than the state's. The same principle was argued for education. The person who holds it is a supporter of voluntarism, a noun with the same spelling whose plural is voluntaries.

7. 7
   nouncountable

   A person who offers to take part or help of their own free will; a volunteer.

   The regiment welcomed a fresh batch of voluntaries that spring.

   He served as a voluntary in the relief effort.

   Similarvolunteer

8. 8
   nouncountable

   A supporter of voluntarism; one who holds that institutions should rest on voluntary support rather than state compulsion.

   The voluntaries of the period campaigned against compulsory church rates.

   He became a leading voluntary in the disestablishment debate.

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