why-not

noun

A violent and peremptory procedure without any assigned reason; a sudden conclusive happening.

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Meanings

noun
  1. obsoleteA violent and peremptory procedure without any assigned reason; a sudden conclusive happening.

    When the church / Was taken with a why-not in the lurch.

    1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC
    1 more example

    This game […] was like to have been lost with a why-not.

    1653, John Harington, A Briefe View of the State of the Church
Cite this entry
APA

why-not. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/why-not

MLA

“why-not.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/why-not. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “why-not,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/why-not.

Source: why-not on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.