Skip to content
Vinony

wile

noun

No English definition recorded for this entry.

L17443 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /waɪl/

name

Etymology: From Middle English wile, an occupational surname for a trapper or a nickname for a wily person.

  1. A surname transferred from the nickname.
  2. A male given name transferred from the surname.

noun

Etymology: From Middle English wile, wyle, from Old Northern French wile (“guile”) and Old English wīl (“wile, trick”) and wiġle (“divination”), from Proto-Germanic *wīlą (“craft, deceit”) (from Proto-Indo-European *wey- (“to turn, bend”)) and Proto-Germanic *wigulą, *wihulą (“prophecy”) (from Proto-Indo-European *weyk- (“to consecrate, hallow, make holy”)). Cognate with Icelandic vél, væl (“artifice, craft, device, fraud, trick”), Dutch wijle. Doublet of guile.

  1. A trick or stratagem practiced for ensnaring or deception; a sly, insidious artifice

    “He was seduced by her wiles.”

    “"Anything interesting among your letters, Geoffrey?" asked Miss Tilehurst, concealing a protective curiosity under this sociable wile, since she had already inspected the covers.”

verb

Etymology: The phrase meaning to pass time idly is while away. We can trace the meaning in an adjectival sense for while back to Old English, hwīlen, "passing, transitory". It is also seen in whilend, "temporary, transitory". But since wile away occurs so often, it is now included in many dictionaries.

  1. Misspelling of while (“to pass the time”).

    “Here's a pleasant way to wile away the hours.”

    ““A fear of what?” asked the gentleman, who seemed to pity her. “I scarcely know of what,” replied the girl. “I wish I did. Horrible thoughts of death, and shrouds with blood upon them, and a fear that has made me burn as if I was on fire, have been upon me all day. I was reading a book to-night, to wile the time away, and the same things came into the print.””