How to Use willy-nilly in a Sentence

willy-nilly

adverb or adjective

• But don't just toss them in the fridge willy-nilly.
  — Alana Al-Hatlani, Southern Living, 23 Apr. 2026
• Who wants one’s neighbors to build willy-nilly?
  — Joshua Rothman, New Yorker, 9 Sep. 2025
• No numbers thrown out willy-nilly.
  — Teri Sforza, Oc Register, 1 Mar. 2026
• Bubbly is also one of those few things that should never be ordered willy-nilly.
  — Jeff Burkhart, Mercury News, 14 May 2025
• Adding native plants in a willy-nilly way and then not taking care of them is a bad idea, Johnsen warns.
  — Erica Browne Grivas, Better Homes & Gardens, 1 Jan. 2026
• The ground moves willy-nilly under collegiate sports every day.
  — San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 Aug. 2023
• The double order is emerging, as the masters of the chessboard, willy-nilly, make room for the web.
  — Anne-Marie Slaughter, Foreign Affairs, 4 Oct. 2016
• People have parked willy-nilly on our narrow side streets, blocking turning lanes and entrances.
  — Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 5 Mar. 2026
• However, while willy-nilly scrubbing is ill-advised, there is more than one way to clean stainless steel.
  — Hallie Milstein, Southern Living, 19 Apr. 2026
• That’s a big deal, because the brain is not just willy-nilly making more cells left and right and using up all its energy.
  — Nicholas Stfleur, STAT, 12 Apr. 2024
• Emotional investors will throw out an entire sector willy-nilly.
  — Brett Owens, Forbes, 9 Jan. 2025
• If two divorced women can attend a party, then women will start divorcing willy-nilly.
  — Alice Burton, Vulture, 11 Aug. 2025
• Statistics are trotted out judiciously to make a clear statement, rather than thrown at us willy-nilly.
  — Angie Han, HollywoodReporter, 11 June 2026
• These are the people who, despairing of finding their way out honestly, simply smash and bash their way through the corn willy-nilly.
  — Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 19 Oct. 2024
• You might be jammed onto a bus with a horde of others, maybe even separated from your friends, and then poured into balloons willy-nilly.
  — Marla Jo Fisher, Chicago Tribune, 5 Feb. 2025
• The good news is cutting you lawn with meticulous precision doesn’t really take much more time than cutting it willy-nilly.
  — Bradley Ford, Popular Mechanics, 4 Aug. 2023
• Neither party can get away with willy-nilly redactions just for the sake of avoiding public embarrassment.
  — Erik Wemple, Washington Post, 6 Mar. 2023
• Magical tech — which no modern thriller can do without, seemingly — is deployed willy-nilly.
  — Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 27 Apr. 2023
• What has to stop is the willy-nilly dealing of draft picks, which proved quite reckless in the Terry Rozier trade, a debt that still has to be paid.
  — Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 13 May 2025
• The ban came after a series of high-profile scooter deaths and an alarming number of devices strewn willy-nilly in neighborhoods across the city.
  — Shaddi Abusaid, AJC.com, 27 July 2026
• Small plates of succulent lamb, marinated eggplant, and flaky nut pastries arrive willy-nilly, adding to the eatery’s distinct charm.
  — Megan Wood, Travel + Leisure, 14 July 2021
• Their quarterback situation is a mess with all of them throwing interceptions willy-nilly.
  — Hank Gola, New York Daily News, 5 Jan. 2024
• There are now as many games as there are phones; what used to be a feast that everyone devoured together has been divvied up into a gazillion little snacks gobbled down willy-nilly.
  — Rand Richards Cooper, Hartford Courant, 8 Jan. 2026
• Surtain, the reigning defensive player of the year, does not lather such compliments upon wideouts willy-nilly.
  — Luca Evans, Denver Post, 12 Sep. 2025
• Coppola followed suit, hopping from state to state willy-nilly with his crew in search of what Natalie’s story would be, with no idea how his film was going to end.
  — David Kamp, New York Times, 1 Dec. 2023
• If these were local law enforcement aiming their weapons willy-nilly at people, the outcry would recoil across Lake County.
  — Charles Selle, Chicago Tribune, 28 Jan. 2026
• As such, postmodern styles are dislodged from any specific historical moment, and styles from across time can be mixed together willy-nilly.
  — Allen Farmelo, Robb Report, 16 July 2024
• There is something so counterintuitive about the claim that God became human that the minds of those who but entertain the notion change willy-nilly.
  — Robert Barron, WSJ, 4 Jan. 2024
• Walter Sam believes in the magical power of accurately wielding words as well as the bad juju that comes with spouting them all willy-nilly.
  — Manuel Muñoz, Literary Hub, 11 Sep. 2025
• Who at Fox News ever — ever — would have supposed that the guy willing to smear others willy-nilly would similarly bash his colleagues?
  — Erik Wemple, Washington Post, 24 Apr. 2023