willed

1. 1
   adjectivein compounds

   Having a will or determination of a specified kind.

   The strong-willed negotiator refused every compromise on the table.

   Iron-willed and disciplined, she trained right through the injury.

   Note

   The form that lives inside compounds: strong-willed, weak-willed, iron-willed, free-willed. The first element names the kind of will, and the pair is joined with a hyphen. On its own, willed rarely carries this meaning. Pierre Schlag's Laying Down the Law (1998) takes free-willed into legal theory, using it for the freely choosing subject that the law imagines when it assigns legal consequences.

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of will.

   The widow willed her jewelry collection to a young niece.

   Stranded on the cliff, she willed her hands to keep gripping the rock.

   Note

   Only the full verb has this form. The auxiliary will, the one that marks the future or habit, has no past participle at all. Willed belongs to the transitive verb of choosing, desiring and making things happen by force of will. That verb is regular, so one spelling serves both uses: she willed it; she had willed it. The adjective in a willed estate (having a legal will) is a different word, formed from the noun.

3. 3
   adjective

   Having a will: a legal document that sets out who inherits a person's property.

   The willed estate moved through probate without any family disputes.

   Lawyers prefer a willed inheritance to the tangle of intestate succession.

   Similartestate

   Oppositeintestate

4. 4
   adjective

   Brought under the will of another person and made to act according to it.

   The willed prisoner obeyed his captors as though he had no mind of his own.

   Cult survivors often describe a willed obedience that erased their own wishes.

   Similarcompelled, controlled

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