Definition of "would"

Past tense of will; usually followed by a bare infinitive.

1. Used to form the "anterior future", or "future in the past", indicating a futurity relative to a past time.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • That her Lily should have been won and not worn, had been, and would be, a trouble to her for ever.

     1867, Anthony Trollope, chapter 28, in Last Chronicle of Barset

   • 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.

     1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], page 0056

   • Toure would have the decisive say though, rising high to power a header past Kenny from Aleksandar Kolarov's cross.

     2011 November 5, Phil Dawkes, “QPR 2-3 Man City”, in BBC Sport

2. Used to; was or were habitually accustomed to; indicating an action in the past that happened repeatedly or commonly.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or otherwise his man would be there with a message to say that his master would shortly join me if I would kindly wait.

     1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., page 46

   • 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.

     2009 March 15, “Soundtrack of my life”, in The Guardian

3. Was or were determined to; indicating someone's insistence upon doing something.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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 […].

     1836, “Boz” [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], chapter V, in Sketches by “Boz,” Illustrative of Every-day Life, and Every-day People. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Macrone, […]

4. Could naturally have been expected to (given the tendencies of someone's character etc.).  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • The free access model, the media magnate said last week, was "malfunctioning". Well he would, wouldn't he?

     2009 May 10, “Is the era of free news over?”, in The Observer

5. (archaic) Wanted to.  quotations

   Quotations

   • And thenne at laste a-nother sayd that he wolde have eyren. Then the good wyf sayd that she understod hym wel.

     1490, William Caxton, Prologue to Eneydos

   • The Greeks, especially those who would be thought adepts in mystic theology, ran after fantastic allegories […].

     1852, James Murdock, trans. Johann Lorenz Mosheim, Institutes of Ecclesiastical History, II.7.iii

6. (archaic) Used with ellipsis of the infinitive verb, or postponement to a relative clause, in various senses.  quotations

   Quotations

   • At which time he told me, he would to London that week, and so to Oxford.

     1694, John Strype, Memorials of The Most Reverend Father in God, Thomas Cranmer‎, Appendix page 68

   • 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 […].

     1724, Daniel Defoe, Roxana, Penguin, page 107

   • 'I thank thee, oh Ayesha,' I replied, with as much dignity as I could command, 'but if there be such a place as thou dost describe, and if in this strange place there may be found a fiery virtue that can hold off Death when he comes to pluck us by the hand, yet would I none of it.'

     1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887

7. (obsolete) Wished, desired (something).

A modal verb, the subjunctive of will; usually followed by a bare infinitive.

1. Used as the auxiliary of the simple conditional modality, indicating a state or action that is conditional on another.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • If I could fly, I would away to those realms of light and warmth – far, far away in the southern clime […].

     1846, “A New Sentimental Journey”, in Blackwoods Magazine, volume LX, number 372

   • Warnock admitted it would be the ideal scenario if he received a Carling Cup winners' medal as well as an England call-up […].

     2010 February 26, The Guardian

2. Without explicit condition, or with loose or vague implied condition, indicating a hypothetical or imagined state or action.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • It's a piece of old folklore for which I would love to find hard proof.

     2008 November 3, Mark Cocker, “Country Diary”, in The Guardian

3. Suggesting conditionality or potentiality in order to express a sense of politeness, tentativeness, indirectness, hesitancy, uncertainty, etc.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • “Those trials are being run by the American army so surely you must have access to the documents?” “Well, yeah, you’d think.”

     2009, Nick Snow, The Rocket's Trail, page 112

   • Departing on schedule with the help of a friendly doctor was quite usual. Does that still apply? It would seem so.

     2010 February 2, Terry Pratchett, “My case for a euthanasia tribunal”, in The Guardian

4. Used to express what the speaker would do in another person's situation, as a means of giving a suggestion or recommendation.  examples

5. Used to express the speaker's belief or assumption.  examples

6. Used interrogatively to express a polite request; are (you) willing to …?  examples

7. (chiefly archaic) Might wish (+ verb in past subjunctive); often used in the first person (with or without that) in the sense of "if only".  quotations

   Quotations

   • KING HENRYThou dost not wish more help from England, coz?WESTMORELANDGod’s will, my liege, would you and I alone,Without more help, could fight this royal battle!

     1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene iii]

   • I presently wished, would that I had been in their clothes! would that I had been born Peter! would that I had been born John!

     1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […]; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, […], 1928,

   • 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!

     1820, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […]

   • 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."

     1912, Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana, translated by F. C. Conybeare (Loeb Classical Library), 8.16

8. (chiefly archaic, transitive or control verb) Might desire; wish (something).  quotations

   Quotations

   • What dost thou professe? What would’st thou with vs?

     c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene iv]

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