whilere

alternative while-ere

1. archaicnot comparableA while ago; a time before; formerly, previously.

   Thou mak'ſt me merry: I am full of pleaſure, / Let vs be iocond. Will you troule the Catch / You taught me but whileare?

   1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 12, column 2

   3 more examples

   VVe met that villen (God from him me bleſſe) / That curſed wight, from whom I ſcapt whyleare, / A man of hell, that cals himſelfe Deſpayre: […]

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 28, page 127

   He who with all Heav'ns heraldry whileare / Enter'd the world, now bleeds to give us eaſe; / Alas, how ſoon our ſin / Sore doth begin / His Infancy to ſeaſe!

   c. 1633–1634, John Milton, “Upon the Circumcision”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC, page 21

   But who shall teach my harp to gain / A sound of the romantic strain, / Whose Anglo-Norman tones whilere / Could win the Second Henry's ear, / Famed Beauclere called, for that he loved / The minstrel, and his lay approved?

   1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “Introduction to Canto Fifth: To George Ellis, Esq.”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: William Miller, and John Murray, →OCLC, page 234

   Synonyms: erewhile, erstwhile, afore, aforehand, already, antecedently, at one time, before · Antonyms: anymore, any more, at present, at the minute, at the moment, at this moment in time, atm, currently