would
Pronunciation
    • (British, America, Australia) IPA: /wʊd/
    • (British, America, Australia) IPA: /wəd/, /əd/
Verb
  1. (heading) As a past-tense form of will.
    1. (obsolete) Wished, desired (something). [9th-19thc.]
    2. (archaic) Wanted to ( + bare infinitive). [from 9thc.]
      • 1852, James Murdock, trans. Johann Lorenz Mosheim, Institutes of Ecclesiastical History, II.7.iii:
        The Greeks, especially those who would be thought adepts in mystic theology, ran after fantastic allegories […].
    3. Used to; was or were habitually accustomed to ( + bare infinitive); indicating an action in the past that happened repeatedly or commonly. [from 9thc.]
      • 2009, "Soundtrack of my life", The Guardian, 15 March:
        When we were kids we would sit by the radio with a tape recorder on a Sunday, listening out for the chart songs we wanted to have.
    4. Used with bare infinitive to form the "anterior future", indicating a futurity relative to a past time. [from 9thc.]
      • 1867, Anthony Trollope, Chronicles of Barsetshire, Ch.28:
        That her Lily should have been won and not worn, had been, and would be, a trouble to her for ever.
      • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, OCLC 7780546 ↗; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], OCLC 2666860 ↗, page 0056 ↗:
        Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.
    5. (archaic) Used with ellipsis of the infinitive verb, or postponement to a relative clause, in various senses. [from 9thc.]
      • 1724, Daniel Defoe, Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress, Penguin p.107:
        He sat as one astonish'd, a good-while, looking at me, without speaking a Word, till I came quite up to him, kneel'd on one Knee to him, and almost whether he would or no, kiss'd his Hand […].
      • 1846, "A New Sentimental Journey", Blackwoods Magazine, vol.LX, no.372:
        If I could fly, I would away to those realms of light and warmth – far, far away in the southern clime […].
    6. Was determined to; loosely, could naturally have been expected to (given the tendencies of someone's character etc.). [from 18thc.]
      • 1835, Charles Dickens, Sketches by Boz, V:
        Then he took to breeding silk-worms, which he would bring in two or three times a day, in little paper boxes, to show the old lady […].
      • 2009, "Is the era of free news over?", The Observer, 10 May:
        The free access model, the media magnate said last week, was "malfunctioning". Well he would, wouldn't he?
  2. (heading) As a modal verb, the subjunctive of will.
    1. Used to give a conditional or potential "softening" to the present; might, might wish. [from 9thc.]
      • 2008, Mark Cocker, "Country Diary", The Guardian, 3 November:
        It's a piece of old folklore for which I would love to find hard proof.
    2. Used as the auxiliary of the simple conditional modality (with a bare infinitive); indicating an action or state that is conditional on another. [from 9thc.]
      • 2010, The Guardian, 26 February:
        Warnock admitted it would be the ideal scenario if he received a Carling Cup winners' medal as well as an England call-up […].
    3. (chiefly, archaic) Might wish ( + verb in past subjunctive); often used in the first person (with or without that) in the sense of "if only". [from 13thc.]
      • 1859, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress,
        I presently wished, would that I h}}ad been in their clothes! would that I had been born Peter! would that I had been born John!
      • 1868, Sir Walter Scott, Ivanhoe, Ch.23:
        I would she had retained her original haughtiness of disposition, or that I had a larger share of Front-de-Bœuf's thrice-tempered hardness of heart!
      • 1912, Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana, translated by F. C. Conybeare (Loeb Classical Library), 8.16:
        But as the youth increased their annoyance by declaring that the goddess was quite right, because the Emperor was Archon Eponym of the city of Athens, he said: "Would that he also presided the Panathenaic festival."
    4. Used to impart a sense of hesitancy or uncertainty to the present; might be inclined to. Now sometimes colloquially with ironic effect. [from 15thc.]
      • 2009, Nick Snow, The Rocket's Trail, p.112:
        “Those trials are being run by the American army so surely you must have access to the documents?” “Well, yeah, you’d think.”
      • 2010, Terry Pratchett, "My case for a euthanasia tribunal", The Guardian, 2 February:
        Departing on schedule with the help of a friendly doctor was quite usual. Does that still apply? It would seem so.
    5. Used interrogatively to express a polite request; are (you) willing to …? [from 15thc.]
      Would you pass the salt, please?
    6. (chiefly, archaic, transitive or control verb) Might desire; wish (something). [from 15thc.]
      • 1608, William Shakespeare, King Lear, I.4:
        What dost thou professe? What would’st thou with vs?
Synonyms
  • (indicating an action in the past that happened repeatedly or commonly): used to
  • (used to express a polite request): be so good as to, kindly, please
Translations Related terms Noun

would (plural woulds)

  1. Something that would happen, or would be the case, under different circumstances; a potentiality.



This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003
Offline English dictionary