Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. nerves, worries, tension; esp. in phr. give (someone) the willies, to unnerve, booze willies, delirium tremens.

[1841		J. Mills Old Eng. Gentleman (1847) 87: ‘It gives me the willy-wabbles to see a hen pheasant bagged,’ replied the keeper. ‘The what?’ asked the squire. ‘The willy-wabbles,’ repeated the keeper, placing his brawny hand tenderly upon his abdominal region].
1896		DN I 427: willies: ‘To have the willies,’ to be nervous.
1898		Eve. Post (Wellington) 9 Mar. 2/7: [In New York] If he bores her very much, he gives her ‘the willies’, an experience which can also be communicated by a sudden shock.
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 8 May 2/7: John L. Sullivan saysa he had a room in Sydney over Sarah Bernhardt, and that Sarah’s rehearsals gave him the willies.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 360: He’s got it bad. The Willies, I guess.
1909		Eve. Star (Wash., DC) 11 Sept. 20/2: A film was showing a spiff with the booze willies.
1910		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Fifth Wheel’ in Strictly Business (1915) 62: But I nearly got the williwalloos.
1913–14		E. O’Neill The Web in Ten ‘Lost’ Plays (1995) 52: Yuh give me the willies standin’ there like a ghost.
1925		Dos Passos Manhattan Transfer 388: I wish you’d fix that shade, those lights give me the willies.
1926		Z. Grey Fighting Caravans (1992) 250: It sort of gave me the willeys to listen to you at night.
1927		(con. WW1) P. MacDonald Patrol 144: He thought: Mustn’t get the willies!
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 758: The fellow’s teeth gave him the willies, they looked so ugly.
1940		W.R. Burnett High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 317: When I first talked to Louis I thought this joint would give me the willies.
1950		C. Harris Three-Ha’Pence to the Angel 85: This place is enough to give you the willies!
1951		M. Spillane One Lonely Night 34: I started to get the willies.
1959		C. Lee diary 15 Feb. in Eight Bells & Top Masts (2001) 194: It was the gun that gave me the willies .
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 127: I had the worst fit of willies in the biz.
1963		F. Kohner Affairs of Gidget 82: Doesn’t it give you the willies?
1967		K. Tennant Tell Morning This 194: ‘I’m stuck out there in a place that gives me the willies’.
1978		W. Diehl Sharky’s Machine 126: I got the willies.
1980		P.D. James Innocent Blood (1981) 112: That kid gives me the willies [...] He’s a proper little Crippen.
1986		P. Barker Liza’s England (1996) 171: She started getting the willies at the last moment.
1999		Johnston-Jones Toilet Elephant [advert] The problem of him giving me the willies.
2005		Mad mag. Oct. 37: Hospitals give me the willies.
2009		R. Milward Ten Storey Love Song 41: Every little creak and voice [...] gives Ellen the willies.
2011		D.R. Pollock Devil All the Time 249: [J]ust looking at her gave him the willies.
2021		A. Parks April Dead 230: ‘Gives me the willies. See enough of it [i.e. blood] at work as it is’.

2. (US drugs) withdrawal symptoms from narcotic drugs.

1930

G. Milburn ‘The Dealer Gets It All’ in Hobo’s Hornbook 152: Then I sprung a rosy lay-out on my side-pen Alton Red, / And we blowed a toy o’ white slufe that knocked the willies dead.