• IPA^(key):/ʍaɪl/,/waɪl/

• Audio(US,without thewine–whine merger):

  (file)

• Audio(US,wine–whine merger):

  (file)

• Rhymes:-aɪl
• Homophone:wile

FromMiddle Englishwhyle, fromOld Englishhwīl, fromProto-West Germanic*hwīlu, fromProto-Germanic*hwīlō (compareDutchwijl,Low GermanWiel,GermanWeile,Danishhvile(“rest”),Norwegian Bokmålhvile(“rest”)), fromProto-Indo-European*kʷyeh₁-(“to rest”). Cognate withAlbaniansillë(“breakfast”),Latintranquillus,Sanskritचिर(cirá),Persianشاد(šâd).

while (plural(archaic or informal)whiles)

1. An uncertain duration of time, a period of time.

   Synonyms:spell;see alsoThesaurus:uncertain period

   He lectured for quite a longwhile.

   It’s a longwhile since anyone lived there, so it’s a ruin now.

   • 1857,Charles Kingsley,[Letters and Memories]:

     Do the good that's nearest Though it's dull atwhiles.

   • 1886,Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 22, inKidnapped, page158:

     There arewhiles[…] when ye are altogether too canny and Whiggish to be company for a gentleman like me.

   • 2017, Anne Thériault, “The Monster Book of Questions and Answers”, in Kelly Jensen, editor,Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World, Algonquin Young Readers, page27:

     Things were pretty dark for a while — severalwhiles, actually.

   1. (US) an uncertainlong period of time

      Synonyms:age;see alsoThesaurus:eon

   2. (Philippines) an uncertainshortmoment

      Synonyms:bit;see alsoThesaurus:moment

while

1. During the same time that.

   He was sleepingwhile I was singing.

   Drivingwhile intoxicated is against the law.

   • 1913,Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter XII, inMr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London:D[aniel] Appleton and Company,→OCLC:

     While the powwow was going on the big woman came back again. She was consider'ble rumpled and scratched up, but there was fire in her eye.

   • 1948,Carey McWilliams,North from Mexico / The Spanish-Speaking People of The United States, J. B. Lippincott Company, page25:

     While De Anza was exploring the Bay of San Francisco, seeking a site for the presidio, the American colonists on the eastern seaboard, three thousand miles away, were celebrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

   • 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, inThe Guardian Weekly, volume188, number26, page36:

     Like most human activities, ballooning has sponsored heroes and hucksters and a good deal in between. For every dedicated scientist patiently recording atmospheric pressure and wind speedwhile shivering at high altitudes, there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls willing to dangle from a basket or parachute down to earth.

3. Although.

   This case,while interesting, is a bit frustrating.

   While I would love to help, I am very busy at the moment.

   • 2013 September 28,Kenan Malik, “London Is Special, but Not That Special”, inNew York Times, retrieved28 September 2013:

     While Britain’s recession has been deep and unforgiving, in London it has been relatively shallow.

4. (Northern England,Scotland)Until.

   I'll waitwhile you've finished painting.

   • 1873,Richard Morris,Walter William Skeat, “Glossarial Index”, inSpecimens of Early English‎^[1], volumes II: From Robert of Gloucester to Gower, A.D. 1298—A.D. 1393,Oxford:Clarendon Press, page490:

     Todark is still used in Swaledale (Yorkshire) in the sense of to lie hid, as, 'Terattens [rats] mun ha bin darkinwhel nu [till now]; we hannot heerd tem tis last fortnith'.

5. As long as.

   While you're at school you may live at home.

   • 1725, Isaac Watts,Logick: Or, The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry after Truth, […], 2nd edition, London:[…] John Clark and Richard Hett, […], Emanuel Matthews, […], and Richard Ford, […], published1726,→OCLC:

     Use your memory; you will sensibly experience a gradual improvement,while you take care not to load it to excess.

6. (media,public policy)Used to denote a person experiencingracial profiling when performing a seemingly benign activity.

   He was detained for four hours at the store yesterday. His crime? Shoppingwhile black.

   • 2016 November 7, Michael T. Luongo, “Traveling While Muslim Complicates Air Travel”, inThe New York Times‎^[2]:

     Ms. Syed, along with many of her American Muslim friends and Islamic-rights advocates, is all too familiar with what many refer to as the stigma of travelingwhile Muslim.

   • 2019 March 8, Tom Perkins, “'Gardening while black': lawsuit targets white accusers over 'outrageous' claims”, inThe Guardian‎^[3]:

     He added that the case took an emotional toll and left him humiliated by the accusations when, in fact, all he had been doing was "gardeningwhile black".

• Seewhilst.

• (during the same time that):whilst; see alsoThesaurus:while
• (although):as much as; see alsoThesaurus:even though
• (until):till; see alsoThesaurus:until
• (as long as):provided that,providing,so long as

while

1. (Northern England,Scotland)Until.
   • c.1613,Thomas Middleton,William Rowley, “Wit at Several Weapons. A Comedy.”, inComedies and Tragedies […], London:[…]Humphrey Robinson, […], and forHumphrey Moseley […], published1647,→OCLC,(please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     I may be conveyed into your chamber; I'll lie under your bedwhile midnight.

• nine while five

while (third-person singular simple presentwhiles,present participlewhiling,simple past and past participlewhiled)

1. (transitive, now only in combination withaway; see alsowhile away) Topass (time)idly.

   Synonyms:idle,laze,lounge

   Iwhiled away the hours whilst waiting for him to arrive

   • 1839, Robert Folkestone Williams,The Youth of Shakespeare‎^[4], page184:

     Some werewhiling the time by admiring the figures on the cloth of tissue.

   • 1863 November 23,Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Student’s Tale. The Falcon of Ser Federigo.”, inTales of a Wayside Inn, Boston, Mass.:Ticknor and Fields,→OCLC,page35:

     Here in seclusion, as a widow may, / The lovely ladywhiled the hours away,[…]

   • 2018, Shukla Lal,Floating Logs:

     As if she was justwhiling her time with them until his arrival.

2. (transitive) To occupy or entertain (someone) in order to let time pass.
   • 1588, Samuel Purchas,Hakluytus Posthumus or, Purchas his Pilgrimes:

     Theywhiled them with such answere as suted to their purposes, and long adoe was made in weaving and unweaving Penelopes web, till the Spanish Armada was upon the Coast, and the very Ordnance proclaimed in their eares a surcease from further illusions.

   • 1907,Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson,Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published1980, page130:

     He sat her on the corner of the carpenter's bench, and parried or diverted her questions about her father, and the desirability of wakening him by handing her the long curled shavings; and when these palled, hewhiled her on by the impossible task of teaching him her version of the 'Three Golden Balls' a blank-verse poem, but rhythmically intoned, which he had taught her.

   • 2010, Dr Rudolf Steiner,Truth-Wrought-Words:

     In other worlds Iwhiled me now Through many a dark night long.

   • 2018, Michael Joyce,Yada:

     Like a good father, hewhiled him with stories about the past of his nation and discussed in detail the intricacies of his profession, teaching the child secrets of the craft that had been passed from generation to generation.

3. (intransitive,archaic) Toelapse, topass.
   • 1764, Mrs. Gunning (Susannah),Family Pictures, a Novel. Containing Curious and Interesting Memoirs of Several Persons of Fashion in W-----re, page115:

     The tedious hourswhiled slowly on, 'till the succeeding afternoon, when the expected carriage made its appearance much sooner than they had promised themselves.

   • 1901,Thomas Hardy, “A Man”, inPoems of the Past and the Present:

     Yearswhiled. He aged, sank, sickened; and was not: / And it was said, 'A man intractable / And curst is gone.'

• (loiter): see alsoThesaurus:loiter

while (third-person singular simple presentwhiles,present participlewhiling,simple past and past participlewhiled)

1. Alternative spelling or misspelling ofwile.
   • 1842, “Letters from Italy: No. 1 —Nice”, inThe Dublin University Magazine, volume19, page47:

     There it lies before me sparkling in the sun,whiling me as it often does from my pen or book to gaze upon its loveliness.

   • 1860,The Knickerbacker - Volume 56, page593:

     Perhaps the coziness of his seat, and the absence of the sun's rays from the side of the house where he was seated, had some agency inwhiling him into a delicious sleep;

   • 1880, Ann Bagwill Cuming,Night Thoughts and Day Dreams, page10:

     Upon the shelf before me stands, The Book that lured to distant Lands, That prompt my boyish wish to roam, Andwhiled me from my childhood's home.

   • 1900,Christian Work: Illustrated Family Newspaper - Volume 68, page38:

     “Do not let us go near them," he says in a cajoling, low voice to Bertha,whiling her away into the sun and the flowers;

   • 2020, George Payne Rainsford James,Agincourt: A Romance:

     Hewhiled him on to speak farther; but the same cloud was still upon Sir Henry Dacre's mind.

• “while”, inOneLook Dictionary Search.
• William Dwight Whitney,Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “while”, inThe Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.:The Century Co.,→OCLC.

FromMiddle Englishwhyle, fromOld Englishhwīl, fromProto-West Germanic*hwīlu.

• IPA^(key):/hwiːl/
• Homophone:wheel

while

1. while
   • 1867,GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY:

     Awhile agone.

     Awhile ago.

   • 1867,CONGRATULATORY ADDRESS IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page114, lines9-11:

     Yn ercha an aul o'while yt beeth wi gleezom o' core th' oure eyen dwytheth apan ye Vigere o'dicke Zouvereine, Wilyame ee Vourthe,

     In each and everycondition it is with joy of heart that our eyes rest upon the representative of that Sovereign, William IV.,

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor,A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published1867,page22