How to Use willy-nilly in a Sentence

willy-nilly

adverb or adjective
  • But don't just toss them in the fridge willy-nilly.
    — Alana Al-Hatlani, Southern Living, 19 Aug. 2025
  • But don't just toss them in the fridge willy-nilly.
    — Alana Al-Hatlani, Southern Living, 23 Apr. 2026
  • Who wants one’s neighbors to build willy-nilly?
    — Joshua Rothman, New Yorker, 9 Sep. 2025
  • No numbers thrown out willy-nilly.
    — Teri Sforza, Oc Register, 1 Mar. 2026
  • Bubbly is also one of those few things that should never be ordered willy-nilly.
    — Jeff Burkhart, Mercury News, 14 May 2025
  • Adding native plants in a willy-nilly way and then not taking care of them is a bad idea, Johnsen warns.
    — Erica Browne Grivas, Better Homes & Gardens, 1 Jan. 2026
  • The ground moves willy-nilly under collegiate sports every day.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 Aug. 2023
  • The double order is emerging, as the masters of the chessboard, willy-nilly, make room for the web.
    — Anne-Marie Slaughter, Foreign Affairs, 4 Oct. 2016
  • People have parked willy-nilly on our narrow side streets, blocking turning lanes and entrances.
    — Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 5 Mar. 2026
  • However, while willy-nilly scrubbing is ill-advised, there is more than one way to clean stainless steel.
    — Hallie Milstein, Southern Living, 9 Nov. 2025
  • However, while willy-nilly scrubbing is ill-advised, there is more than one way to clean stainless steel.
    — Hallie Milstein, Southern Living, 19 Apr. 2026
  • However, while willy-nilly scrubbing is ill-advised, there is more than one way to clean stainless steel.
    — Hallie Milstein, Southern Living, 9 Nov. 2025
  • That’s a big deal, because the brain is not just willy-nilly making more cells left and right and using up all its energy.
    — Nicholas Stfleur, STAT, 12 Apr. 2024
  • Emotional investors will throw out an entire sector willy-nilly.
    — Brett Owens, Forbes, 9 Jan. 2025
  • If two divorced women can attend a party, then women will start divorcing willy-nilly.
    — Alice Burton, Vulture, 11 Aug. 2025
  • Statistics are trotted out judiciously to make a clear statement, rather than thrown at us willy-nilly.
    — Angie Han, HollywoodReporter, 11 June 2026
  • These are the people who, despairing of finding their way out honestly, simply smash and bash their way through the corn willy-nilly.
    — Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 19 Oct. 2024
  • You might be jammed onto a bus with a horde of others, maybe even separated from your friends, and then poured into balloons willy-nilly.
    — Marla Jo Fisher, Chicago Tribune, 5 Feb. 2025
  • The good news is cutting you lawn with meticulous precision doesn’t really take much more time than cutting it willy-nilly.
    — Bradley Ford, Popular Mechanics, 4 Aug. 2023
  • Neither party can get away with willy-nilly redactions just for the sake of avoiding public embarrassment.
    — Erik Wemple, Washington Post, 6 Mar. 2023
  • Magical tech — which no modern thriller can do without, seemingly — is deployed willy-nilly.
    — Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 27 Apr. 2023
  • What has to stop is the willy-nilly dealing of draft picks, which proved quite reckless in the Terry Rozier trade, a debt that still has to be paid.
    — Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 13 May 2025
  • Small plates of succulent lamb, marinated eggplant, and flaky nut pastries arrive willy-nilly, adding to the eatery’s distinct charm.
    — Megan Wood, Travel + Leisure, 14 July 2021
  • Their quarterback situation is a mess with all of them throwing interceptions willy-nilly.
    — Hank Gola, New York Daily News, 5 Jan. 2024
  • There are now as many games as there are phones; what used to be a feast that everyone devoured together has been divvied up into a gazillion little snacks gobbled down willy-nilly.
    — Rand Richards Cooper, Hartford Courant, 8 Jan. 2026
  • Surtain, the reigning defensive player of the year, does not lather such compliments upon wideouts willy-nilly.
    — Luca Evans, Denver Post, 12 Sep. 2025
  • Coppola followed suit, hopping from state to state willy-nilly with his crew in search of what Natalie’s story would be, with no idea how his film was going to end.
    — David Kamp, New York Times, 1 Dec. 2023
  • If these were local law enforcement aiming their weapons willy-nilly at people, the outcry would recoil across Lake County.
    — Charles Selle, Chicago Tribune, 28 Jan. 2026
  • As such, postmodern styles are dislodged from any specific historical moment, and styles from across time can be mixed together willy-nilly.
    — Allen Farmelo, Robb Report, 16 July 2024
  • There is something so counterintuitive about the claim that God became human that the minds of those who but entertain the notion change willy-nilly.
    — Robert Barron, WSJ, 4 Jan. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'willy-nilly.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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