while

Etymology

From Middle English whyle, from Old English hwīl, from Proto-West Germanic *hwīlu, from Proto-Germanic *hwīlō (compare Dutch wijl, Low German Wiel, German Weile, Danish hvile (“rest”), Norwegian Bokmål hvile (“rest”)), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷyeh₁- (“to rest”). Cognate with Albanian sillë (“breakfast”), Latin tranquillus, Sanskrit चिर (cirá), Persian شاد (šâd).

noun

1. An uncertain duration of time, a period of time.
   1. (US) an uncertain long period of time
   2. (Philippines) an uncertain short moment

conj

1. During the same time that.
   He was sleeping while I was singing.
   Driving while intoxicated is against the law.
   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. Lincoln, chapter 12, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
   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. 2013-06-07, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36
2. 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. September 28 2013, Kenan Malik, “London Is Special, but Not That Special”, in New York Times, retrieved 2013-09-28
3. (Northern England, Scotland) 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'. 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
4. As long as.
   While you're at school you may live at home.
5. (media, public policy) Used to denote an individual experiencing racial profiling when performing a seemingly benign activity.
   He was detained for four hours at the store yesterday. His crime? Shopping while black.
   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. 2016-11-07, Michael T. Luongo, “Traveling While Muslim Complicates Air Travel”, in The New York Times
   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". 2019-03-08, Tom Perkins, “'Gardening while black': lawsuit targets white accusers over 'outrageous' claims”, in The Guardian

prep

1. (Northern England, Scotland) Until.

verb

1. (transitive, now only in combination with away; see also while away) 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. 1839, Robert Folkestone Williams, The Youth of Shakespeare, page 184
   As if she was just whiling her time with them until his arrival. 2018, Shukla Lal, Floating Logs
2. (transitive) To occupy or entertain (someone) in order to let time pass.
   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
   In other worlds I whiled me now Through many a dark night long. 2010, Dr Rudolf Steiner, Truth-Wrought-Words
   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. (intransitive, archaic) 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. 1764, Mrs. Gunning (Susannah), Family Pictures, a Novel. Containing Curious and Interesting Memoirs of Several Persons of Fashion in W-----re, page 115
   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
4. 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. 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
   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