would.html - {literary} I wish that. - Used at the beginning of a sentence expressing a wish; followed by a verb in the subjunctive; found mostly in poetry and older literature. * /Would that I could only drop everything and join you./ * /Would that my mother were alive to see me married./ Syn.: IF ONLY.

would.html - {adj.} Aspiring. * /The Broadway casting offices are always full of would-be actors./

would.html - {v. phr.} To think that someone is quite capable or likely to have done something undesirable or illegal. * /Congressman Alfonso is insisting that he didn't violate congressional ethics, but knowing both his expensive habits and his amorous escapades, many of us wouldn't put it past him that he might have helped himself to funds illegally./

would.html - v.aux. (3rd sing. would) past of WILL(1), used esp.: 1 (in the 2nd and 3rd persons, and often in the 1st: see SHOULD ). a in reported speech (he said he would be home by evening). b to express the conditional mood (they would have been killed if they had gone).
2 to express habitual action (would wait for her every evening).
3 to express a question or polite request (would they like it?; would you come in, please?).
4 to express probability (I guess she would be over fifty by now).
5 (foll. by that + clause) literary to express a wish (would that you were here).
6 to express consent (they would not help).

would-be often derog. desiring or aspiring to be (a would-be politician). [OE wolde, past of wyllan: see WILL(1) )]

would.html - contr. would not.

I wouldn't know colloq. (as is to be expected) I do not know.

would.html - archaic 2nd sing. past of WOULD.