while

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   An uncertain duration of time, a period of time.

   • He lectured for quite a long while.
   • 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.
2. 2

   During the same time that.

   • He was sleeping while I was singing.
   • Driving while intoxicated is against the law.
   • I lived in Ávila for two lustra while I was a child.
3. 3

   Although.

   • This case, while interesting, is a bit frustrating.
   • 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.
4. ›+ 7 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      Until.

      • I'll wait while you've finished painting.
      • 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'.
   2. 5

      As long as.

      • While you're at school you may live at home.
      • While there's quiet I can sleep.
      • Use your memory; you will sensibly experience a gradual improvement, while you take care not to load it to excess.
   3. 6

      To pass (time) idly.

      • 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.
      • Here in seclusion, as a widow may, / The lovely lady whiled the hours away, […]
   4. 7

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

      • In other worlds I whiled me now Through many a dark night long.
   5. 8

      To elapse, to pass.

      • 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.'
   6. 9

      Alternative spelling or misspelling of wile.

      • 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.
      • 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;
      • 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.
   7. 10

      A surname.

The neighborhood

• synonymeven though
• synonymuntil
• synonymas
• synonymwhen
• synonymwhile
• synonymwhilom
• antonymsince
• antonymuntil