Pronunciations (5)
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/ʍaɪl/
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/waɪl/
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/wæl/
Pronunciation notes
- US
- unstressed
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/wɑl/
Pronunciation notes
- US
- unstressed
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ʍaɪl
Noun
An uncertain duration of time, a period of time.
- Synonyms
- Examples
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He lectured for quite a long while.
It’s a long while since anyone lived there, so it’s a ruin now.
More examples (3)
Do the good that's nearest Though it's dull at whiles.
There are whiles […] when ye are altogether too canny and Whiggish to be company for a gentleman like me.
Things were pretty dark for a while — several whiles, actually.
An uncertain duration of time, a period of time. An uncertain long period of time
- Synonyms
An uncertain duration of time, a period of time. An uncertain short moment.
Usage- Philippines
- Synonyms
Conjunction
During the same time that.
- Examples
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He was sleeping while I was singing.
Driving while intoxicated is against the law.
More examples (6)
I lived in Ávila for two lustra while I was a child.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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".
Although.
- Examples
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This case, while interesting, is a bit frustrating.
While I would love to help, I am very busy at the moment.
More examples (2)
While Britain’s recession has been deep and unforgiving, in London it has been relatively shallow.
And while one isolated act of kindness may seem random, it can lead to much more.
Until.
Usage- Northern-England
- Scotland
- Examples
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I'll wait while you've finished painting.
More examples (1)
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'.
As long as.
- Examples
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While you're at school you may live at home.
While there's quiet I can sleep.
More examples (1)
Use your memory; you will sensibly experience a gradual improvement, while you take care not to load it to excess.
Preposition
Until.
Usage- Northern-England
- Scotland
- Examples
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I may be conveyed into your chamber; I'll lie under your bed while midnight.
Verb
To pass (time) idly.
Usage- In compounds
- Transitive
- with away
- Examples
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I whiled away the hours whilst waiting for him to arrive
Some were whiling the time by admiring the figures on the cloth of tissue.
More examples (2)
Here in seclusion, as a widow may, / The lovely lady whiled the hours away, […]
As if she was just whiling her time with them until his arrival.
To occupy or entertain (someone) in order to let time pass.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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More examples (2)
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.
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.
In other worlds I whiled me now Through many a dark night long.
More examples (1)
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.
To elapse, to pass.
Usage- Archaic
- Intransitive
- Examples
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More examples (1)
The tedious hours whiled slowly on, 'till the succeeding afternoon, when the expected carriage made its appearance much sooner than they had promised themselves.
Years whiled. He aged, sank, sickened; and was not: / And it was said, 'A man intractable / And curst is gone.'
Noun
a period of indeterminate length (usually short) marked by some action or condition
- Broader terms
- Examples
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he was here for a little while
I need to rest for a piece
More examples (2)
a spell of good weather
a patch of bad weather