will-they-won't-they

alternative will-they, won't-they · alternative will they, won't they · alternative will-they/won't-they · alternative will they? won't they?

1. not comparableOf or pertaining to a potential coupling between two people who share romantic chemistry, but whose relationship is threatened by uncertainty, external obstacles or internal strife.

   Tim and Dawn, being a will-they-won't-they pair, both lose (until they get together at the end).

   2014, Marc Blake, How To Be A Sitcom Writer: Secrets From The Inside, Andrews UK Limited, →ISBN

   5 more examples

   Princess Sonja, the daughter of an Oslo fashion house director, married Crown Prince Harald last summer after a will-they-won't-they romance that had gone on for a decade.

   1968, The Scandinavian Times: Newsmagazine

   Duet is a "will-they-won't-they?" sit-com about a young couple best described as in the throes of 'courting'.

   1987, The Listener

   Woolworths had already started manufacturing wedding memorabilia, including William and Kate china, ahead of an announcement; the press toyed with the will-they-won't-they question; and the couple kept a chart of newspaper speculations on the royal wedding

   2010, Katie Nicholl, William and Harry: Behind the Palace Walls, Weinstein Publishing, →ISBN, page 187

   Ôba's three-part What is Your Name? (Kimi no na wa, 1953–1954), a will-they-won't-they romantic drama in which a couple meet on a bridge during a wartime air raid and fall in love, promising that they will meet again although unfortunately neglecting to tell each other their names, was the most commercially successful film of the early 1950s.

   2011, Jasper Sharp, Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema, Scarecrow Press, →ISBN, page 224

   […]Daisy Jones & The Six is based on the novel of the same name by Taylor Jenkins Reid and follows the whirlwind of a fictional '70s band as they rise to meteoric fame. Of course, there's a will-they-won't-they element that ensues between the two lead singers of the band, Billy Dunne (Sam Claflin) and Daisy Jones (Riley Keough), which raises stakes and creates tension in the band's dynamic.

   2023 August 17, Samantha Olson, “Stevie Nicks *Finally* Reacts to ‘Daisy Jones & The Six’: “It Was Very Emotional for Me””, in Cosmopolitan

2. broadlynot comparableOf or pertaining to any situation in which there is an extended period of uncertainty.

   Among the small producers, the West German companies Continental Gummi and Phoenix Gummi are in the middle of a will-they-won't-they merger dance.

   1971, Multinational Business

   2 more examples

   Not only physically did Greenpeace alter the situation—but perhaps more important, it gave the issue a cup-tie atmosphere which it may not otherwise have had, and there was the constant will-they-won't- they.

   1978, New Scientist, page 379

   The reality behind the will-they-won't-they, pre-nuptial dances among aspirant members of Europe's monetary union club is that as long as the present economic slowdown doesn't turn into a full-blown recession the project will probably go ahead.

   1996 January 27, The Guardian, quoted in Katarzyna Jaszczolt, Ken Turner, Meaning Through Language Contrast, John Benjamins Publishing →ISBN, page 133