while
See also: While
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ʍaɪl/, /waɪl/Category:English 1-syllable words#WHILECategory:English 1-syllable words#WHILECategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#WHILE
- (US, unstressed, conjunction) IPA(key): /wæl/, /wɑl/Category:English 1-syllable words#WHILECategory:English 1-syllable words#WHILECategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#WHILE
Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#WHILEAudio (US, without the wine–whine merger): (file)
Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#WHILEAudio (US, wine–whine merger): (file) - Rhymes: -aɪlCategory:Rhymes:English/aɪl#WHILECategory:Rhymes:English/aɪl/1 syllable#WHILE
- Homophone: wileCategory:English terms with homophones#WHILE
Etymology 1
Category:English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European#WHILECategory:English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *kʷyeh₁-#WHILEFrom Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#WHILECategory:English terms derived from Middle English#WHILE whyle, from Old EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Old English#WHILECategory:English terms derived from Old English#WHILE hwīl, from Proto-West GermanicCategory:English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic#WHILECategory:English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic#WHILE *hwīlu, from Proto-GermanicCategory:English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic#WHILECategory:English terms derived from Proto-Germanic#WHILE *hwīlō (compare Dutch wijl, Low German Wiel, German Weile, Danish hvile (“rest”), Norwegian Bokmål hvile (“rest”)), from Proto-Indo-EuropeanCategory:English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European#WHILE *kʷyeh₁- (“to rest”). Cognate with Albanian sillë (“breakfast”), Latin tranquillus, Sanskrit चिर (cirá)Category:Sanskrit terms with non-redundant manual transliterations#WHILE, Persian شاد (šâd).
Noun
while (plural (archaic or informal) whiles)Category:English lemmas#WHILECategory:English nouns#WHILECategory:English countable nouns#WHILECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#WHILECategory:Pages with entries#WHILECategory:Pages with 3 entries#WHILE
- An uncertain duration of time, a period of time.
- Synonyms: spell; see also Thesaurus:uncertain period
- He lectured for quite a long while.Category:English terms with usage examples#WHILE
- It’s a long while since anyone lived there, so it’s a ruin now.Category:English terms with usage examples#WHILE
- 1857, Charles Kingsley, [Letters and Memories]:
- Do the good that's nearest Though it's dull at whiles.Category:English terms with quotations#WHILE
- 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 22, in Kidnapped, page 158:
- There are whiles […] when ye are altogether too canny and Whiggish to be company for a gentleman like me.Category:English terms with quotations#WHILE
- 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, page 27:
- Things were pretty dark for a while — several whiles, actually.Category:English terms with quotations#WHILE
- An uncertain long period of time
- Synonyms: age; see also Thesaurus:eon
- (PhilippinesCategory:Philippine English#WHILE) an uncertain short moment
- Synonyms: bit; see also Thesaurus:moment
Derived terms
- after a while
- all the while
- awhile
- breathing while
- even a blind pig can find an acorn once in a while
- even a blind squirrel can find a nut once in a while
- even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every once in a while
- every once in a while
- for a while
- in a little while
- in a while
- meanwhile
- no while
- once in a while
- paternoster while
- the while
- the whole while
- wait-a-while
- while-ere, whilere
- whiles
- whilst
- worth one's while
- worth while, worthwhile
Translations
uncertain duration of time, a period of time
Conjunction
whileCategory:English lemmas#WHILECategory:English conjunctions#WHILECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#WHILECategory:Pages with entries#WHILECategory:Pages with 3 entries#WHILE
- During the same time that.
- He was sleeping while I was singing.Category:English terms with usage examples#WHILE
- Driving while intoxicated is against the law.Category:English terms with usage examples#WHILE
- I lived in Ávila for two lustra while I was a child.Category:English terms with usage examples#WHILE
- 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter XII, in Mr. 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.Category:English terms with quotations#WHILE
- 1948, Carey McWilliams, North from Mexico / The Spanish-Speaking People of The United States, J. B. Lippincott Company, page 25:
- 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.Category:English terms with quotations#WHILE
- 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:
- 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 speed while 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.Category:English terms with quotations#WHILE
- 2016 November 7, Michael T. Luongo, “Traveling While Muslim Complicates Air Travel”, in The New York Times:
- 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 traveling while Muslim.Category:English terms with quotations#WHILE
- 2019 March 8, Tom Perkins, “'Gardening while black': lawsuit targets white accusers over 'outrageous' claims”, in The Guardian:
- 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 "gardening while black".Category:English terms with quotations#WHILE
- Although.
- This case, while interesting, is a bit frustrating.Category:English terms with usage examples#WHILE
- While I would love to help, I am very busy at the moment.Category:English terms with usage examples#WHILE
- 2013 September 28, Kenan Malik, “London Is Special, but Not That Special”, in New York Times, retrieved 28 September 2013:
- While Britain’s recession has been deep and unforgiving, in London it has been relatively shallow.Category:English terms with quotations#WHILE
- 2025 November 13, Kamala Thiagarajan, “If you're going to be kind to another human, today is the day to do it!”, in NPR:
- And while one isolated act of kindness may seem random, it can lead to much more.Category:English terms with quotations#WHILE
- (Northern EnglandCategory:Northern England English#WHILE, ScotlandCategory:Scottish English#WHILE) Until.
- I'll wait while you've finished painting.Category:English terms with usage examples#WHILE
- 1873, Richard Morris, Walter William Skeat, “Glossarial Index”, in Specimens of Early English, volumes II: From Robert of Gloucester to Gower, A.D. 1298—A.D. 1393, Oxford: Clarendon Press, page 490:
- To dark is still used in Swaledale (Yorkshire) in the sense of to lie hid, as, 'Te rattens [rats] mun ha bin darkin whel nu [till now]; we hannot heerd tem tis last fortnith'.Category:English terms with quotations#WHILE
- As long as.
- While you're at school you may live at home.Category:English terms with usage examples#WHILE
- While there's quiet I can sleep.Category:English terms with usage examples#WHILE
- 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, […], published 1726, →OCLC:
- Use your memory; you will sensibly experience a gradual improvement, while you take care not to load it to excess.Category:English terms with quotations#WHILE
Usage notes
Synonyms
- (during the same time that): whilst; see also Thesaurus:while
- (although): as much as; see also Thesaurus:even though
- (until): till; see also Thesaurus:until
- (as long as): provided that, providing, so long as
Derived terms
- build the plane while flying it
- do-while loop
- driving while black
- fiddle while Rome burns
- fix the roof while the sun is shining
- get out while the getting's good
- make hay while the sun shines
- not while pussy's a cat
- quit while one is ahead
- sort-while-pick
- strike the iron while it's hot
- strike while the iron is hot
- while loop
- while one is about it
- while one is at it
- while we're young
- while you're down there
Translations
during the same time that
although
Category:Entries with translation boxes#WHILE
|
until — see until
as long as
Category:Entries with translation boxes#WHILE
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
Preposition
whileCategory:English lemmas#WHILECategory:English prepositions#WHILECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#WHILECategory:Pages with entries#WHILECategory:Pages with 3 entries#WHILE
- (Northern EnglandCategory:Northern England English#WHILE, ScotlandCategory:Scottish English#WHILE) Until.
- c. 1613, Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, “Wit at Several Weapons. A Comedy.”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →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 bed while midnight.Category:English terms with quotations#WHILE
Derived terms
Verb
while (third-person singular simple present whiles, present participle whiling, simple past and past participle whiled)Category:English lemmas#WHILECategory:English verbs#WHILECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#WHILECategory:Pages with entries#WHILECategory:Pages with 3 entries#WHILE
- (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#WHILE, now only in combination with away; see also while away) To pass (time) idly.
- Synonyms: idle, laze, lounge
- I whiled away the hours whilst waiting for him to arriveCategory:English terms with usage examples#WHILE
- 1839, Robert Folkestone Williams, The Youth of Shakespeare, page 184:
- Some were whiling the time by admiring the figures on the cloth of tissue.Category:English terms with quotations#WHILE
- 1863 November 23, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Student’s Tale. The Falcon of Ser Federigo.”, in Tales of a Wayside Inn, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 35:
- Here in seclusion, as a widow may, / The lovely lady whiled the hours away, […]Category:English terms with quotations#WHILE
- 2018, Shukla Lal, Floating Logs:
- As if she was just whiling her time with them until his arrival.Category:English terms with quotations#WHILE
- (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#WHILE) To occupy or entertain (someone) in order to let time pass.
- 1588, Samuel Purchas, Hakluytus Posthumus or, Purchas his Pilgrimes:
- They whiled 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.Category:English terms with quotations#WHILE
- 1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 130:
- 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, he whiled 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.Category:English terms with quotations#WHILE
- 2010, Dr Rudolf Steiner, Truth-Wrought-Words:
- In other worlds I whiled me now Through many a dark night long.Category:English terms with quotations#WHILE
- 2018, Michael Joyce, Yada:
- Like a good father, he whiled 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.Category:English terms with quotations#WHILE
- (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#WHILE, archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#WHILE) To elapse, to pass.
- 1764, Mrs. Gunning (Susannah), Family Pictures, a Novel. Containing Curious and Interesting Memoirs of Several Persons of Fashion in W-----re, page 115:
- The tedious hours whiled slowly on, 'till the succeeding afternoon, when the expected carriage made its appearance much sooner than they had promised themselves.Category:English terms with quotations#WHILE
- 1901, Thomas Hardy, “A Man”, in Poems of the Past and the Present:
- Years whiled. He aged, sank, sickened; and was not: / And it was said, 'A man intractable / And curst is gone.'Category:English terms with quotations#WHILE
Synonyms
- (loiter): see also Thesaurus:loiter
Derived terms
Translations
to pass (time) idly — see while away
to loiter
to entertain (someone) in order to let time pass
Etymology 2
Verb
while (third-person singular simple present whiles, present participle whiling, simple past and past participle whiled)Category:English lemmas#WHILECategory:English verbs#WHILECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#WHILECategory:Pages with entries#WHILECategory:Pages with 3 entries#WHILE
- Alternative spelling or misspelling of wile.
- 1842, “Letters from Italy: No. 1 —Nice”, in The Dublin University Magazine, volume 19, page 47:
- 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.Category:English terms with quotations#WHILE
- 1860, The Knickerbacker - Volume 56, page 593:
- 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 in whiling him into a delicious sleep;Category:English terms with quotations#WHILE
- 1880, Ann Bagwill Cuming, Night Thoughts and Day Dreams, page 10:
- Upon the shelf before me stands, The Book that lured to distant Lands, That prompt my boyish wish to roam, And whiled me from my childhood's home.Category:English terms with quotations#WHILE
- 1900, Christian Work: Illustrated Family Newspaper - Volume 68, page 38:
- “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;Category:English terms with quotations#WHILE
- 2020, George Payne Rainsford James, Agincourt: A Romance:
- He whiled him on to speak farther; but the same cloud was still upon Sir Henry Dacre's mind.Category:English terms with quotations#WHILE
References
- “while”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “while”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
Middle English
Noun
whileCategory:Middle English alternative forms#WHILECategory:Middle English entries with incorrect language header#WHILECategory:Pages with entries#WHILECategory:Pages with 3 entries#WHILE
- alternative form of whyle
Yola
Etymology
From Middle EnglishCategory:Yola terms inherited from Middle English#WHILECategory:Yola terms derived from Middle English#WHILE whyle, from Old EnglishCategory:Yola terms inherited from Old English#WHILECategory:Yola terms derived from Old English#WHILE hwīl, from Proto-West GermanicCategory:Yola terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic#WHILECategory:Yola terms derived from Proto-West Germanic#WHILE *hwīlu.
Pronunciation
Noun
whileCategory:Yola lemmas#WHILECategory:Yola nouns#WHILECategory:Yola entries with incorrect language header#WHILECategory:Pages with entries#WHILECategory:Pages with 3 entries#WHILE
- while
- 1867, GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY:
- A while agone.Category:Yola terms with quotations#WHILE
- A while ago.
- 1867, CONGRATULATORY ADDRESS IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 114, lines 9-11:
- 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,Category:Yola terms with quotations#WHILE
- In each and every condition it is with joy of heart that our eyes rest upon the representative of that Sovereign, William IV.,
References
- 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, published 1867, page 22
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