while

archaic informal plural whiles

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

   We had to wait a short while.

   4 more examples

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

   Do the good that's nearest Though it's dull at whiles.

   1857, Charles Kingsley, [Letters and Memories]

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

   1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 22, in Kidnapped, page 158

   Things were pretty dark for a while — several whiles, actually.

   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

   Synonyms: spell, space, spell, throw

   1. An uncertain long period of time

      I'm afraid it will be a while until the doctor can see you.

      Synonyms: spell, space, spell, throw, age, aeon, age, ages

   2. PhilippinesAn uncertain short moment.

      Synonyms: spell, space, spell, throw, bit, bat of an eye, bit, blink of an eye

1. During the same time that.

   He was sleeping while I was singing.

   5 more examples

   Driving while intoxicated is against the law.

   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.

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

   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.

   1948, Carey McWilliams, North from Mexico / The Spanish-Speaking People of The United States, J. B. Lippincott Company, page 25

   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.

   2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36

   Synonyms: whilst

2. Although.

   This case, while interesting, is a bit frustrating.

   3 more examples

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

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

   2013 September 28, Kenan Malik, “London Is Special, but Not That Special”, in New York Times, retrieved 28 Sep 2013

   And while one isolated act of kindness may seem random, it can lead to much more.

   2025 November 13, Kamala Thiagarajan, “If you're going to be kind to another human, today is the day to do it!”, in NPR

   Synonyms: as much as

3. Northern EnglandScotlandUntil.

   I'll wait while you've finished painting.

   1 more example

   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'.

   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

   Synonyms: till

4. As long as.

   While there's quiet I can sleep.

   2 more examples

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

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

   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

   Synonyms: provided that, providing, so long as

1. Northern EnglandScotlandUntil.

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

   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)

present singular third person whiles · participle present whiling · participle past whiled · past whiled

1. in compoundstransitivesee also while awayTo pass (time) idly.

   I whiled away the hours whilst waiting for him to arrive

   3 more examples

   Some were whiling the time by admiring the figures on the cloth of tissue.

   1839, Robert Folkestone Williams, The Youth of Shakespeare, page 184

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

   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

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

   2018, Shukla Lal, Floating Logs

   Synonyms: idle, laze, lounge

2. transitiveTo occupy or entertain (someone) in order to let time pass.

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

   2010, Dr Rudolf Steiner, Truth-Wrought-Words

   3 more examples

   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.

   1588, Samuel Purchas, Hakluytus Posthumus or, Purchas his Pilgrimes

   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.

   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

   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.

   2018, Michael Joyce, Yada

3. archaicintransitiveTo elapse, to pass.

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

   1901, Thomas Hardy, “A Man”, in Poems of the Past and the Present

   1 more example

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

   1764, Mrs. Gunning (Susannah), Family Pictures, a Novel. Containing Curious and Interesting Memoirs of Several Persons of Fashion in W-----re, page 115

present singular third person whiles · participle present whiling · participle past whiled · past whiled

1. alternativemisspellingAlternative spelling or misspelling of wile.

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

   2020, George Payne Rainsford James, Agincourt: A Romance

   4 more examples

   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.

   1842, “Letters from Italy: No. 1 —Nice”, in The Dublin University Magazine, volume 19, page 47

   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;

   1860, The Knickerbacker - Volume 56, page 593

   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.

   1880, Ann Bagwill Cuming, Night Thoughts and Day Dreams, page 10

   “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;

   1900, Christian Work: Illustrated Family Newspaper - Volume 68, page 38

1. A surname.