with a will

Meanings

prepositional phrase

datedidiomaticWith willingness and zeal; with all one's heart or strength; earnestly, heartily.
So Willy and I were wedded: I wore a lilac gown; / And the ringers rang with a will, and he gave the ringers a crown.
1859 July 16, Alfred Tennyson, “The Grandmother”, in Enoch Arden, &c., London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], published 1864, →OCLC, stanza XV, page 121
5 more examples
«Yes!» muttered the Rover, with bitter irony, as his boat rowed under the stern of the cruiser of the Crown; «yes! I, and my officers, will taste of your banquet! But the viands shall be such as these hirelings of the King shall little relish!—Pull with a will, my men, pull; in an hour, you shall rummage the store-rooms of that fool, for your reward!»
1827 November 27, [James Fenimore Cooper], chapter VIII, in The Red Rover, […], volume III, Paris: […] [Lachevardiere] for Hector Bossange, […], →OCLC, page 179
Now, nobody does anything well that they cannot help doing: work is only done well when it is done with a will; and no man has a thoroughly sound will unless he knows he is doing what he should, and is in his place.
1866, John Ruskin, “Lecture I. Work. (Delivered before the Working Men’s Institute, at Camberwell.)”, in The Crown of Wild Olive. Three Lectures on Work, Traffic, and War, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 44
Swimming with his right arm, he held up his left to hail them, splashing upon the waves, and shouting with all his might. […] Backing their oars and putting the boat about, they pulled towards him with a will, and in five or six minutes from the time of his first halloo, two of the sailors hauled him in over the stern.
1874, Thomas Hardy, “Adventures by the Shore”, in Far from the Madding Crowd. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, page 208
And then the whole crew bore chorus:— / "Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!" / And at the third "ho!" drove the bars before them with a will.
1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Voyage”, in Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC, part II (The Sea Cook), pages 77–78
Under the wide and starry sky, / Dig the grave and let me lie. / Glad did I live and gladly die, / And I laid me down with a will.
1884 May (date written), Robert Louis Stevenson, “Requiem”, in Underwoods, London: Chatto and Windus, […], published 1887, →OCLC, book I (In English), page 43
Synonyms: resolutely