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English
Noun
good-will (uncountable)
- Archaic form of goodwill.
1811, [Jane Austen], chapter VIII, in Sense and Sensibility , volume III, London: C Roworth, , and published by T Egerton, , →OCLC, pages 185–186:“But she will be gained by some one else. And if that some one should be the very he whom, of all others, I could least bear—But I will not stay to rob myself of all your compassionate good-will, by shewing that where I have most injured I can least forgive. Good bye,—God bless you!” And with these words, he almost ran out of the room.
1840, Leigh Hunt, “XLVIII.—Twelfth Night. A Street Portrait. Shakespeare's Play, Recollections of a Twelfth Night.”, in The Seer; or, Common-places Refreshed. By Leigh Hunt. In Two Parts, volume I, London: Edward Moxon, Dover Street, →OCLC, page 32, column 1:May a pleasant Twelfth Night have we passed in our time; and such future Twelfth Nights as may remain to us shall be pleasant, God and good-will permitting: for even if care should be round about them, we have no notion of missing these mountain-tops of rest and brightness, on which people may refresh themselves during the stormiest parts of life's voyage.
1863 December 25, Henry W[adsworth] Longfellow, “Christmas Bells”, in J[ohn] T[ownsend] Trowbridge, Gail Hamilton [pseudonym; Mary Abigail Dodge], Lucy Larcom, editors, Our Young Folks. An Illustrated Magazine for Boys and Girls, volume I, number II, Boston, Mass.: Ticknow and Fields, 124 Tremont Street, published February 1865, →OCLC, page 123:I heard the bells on Christmas Day / Their old, familiar carols play, / And wild and sweet / The words repeat / Of peace on earth, good-will to men!