why-not

See also: why not

English

Noun

why-not

1. (obsolete) A violent and peremptory procedure without any assigned reason; a sudden conclusive happening.
   • 1662, [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:

     When the church / Was taken with a why-not in the lurch.

   • 1653, John Harington, A Briefe View of the State of the Church:

     This game […] was like to have been lost with a why-not.