WHILE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of While

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/waɪl/ /hwaɪl/ Listen

conjunction

While conj.

During the time that; as long as; whilst; at the same time that; as, while I write, you sleep. "While I have time and space." "Use your memory; you will sensibly experience a gradual improvement, while you take care not to overload it."

Hence, under which circumstances; in which case; though; whereas.

While as, While that, during or at the time that. (Obs.)

noun

While n.

Space of time, or continued duration, esp. when short; a time; as, one while we thought him innocent. "All this while." "This mighty queen may no while endure." "(Some guest that) hath outside his welcome while, And tells the jest without the smile." "I will go forth and breathe the air a while."

That which requires time; labor; pains. (Obs.) "Satan... cast him how he might quite her while."

At whiles, at times; at intervals. "And so on us at whiles it falls, to claim Powers that we dread."

The while, The whiles, in or during the time that; meantime; while.

Within a while, in a short time; soon.

Worth while, worth the time which it requires; worth the time and pains; hence, worth the expense; as, it is not always worth while for a man to prosecute for small debts.

verb

While v. t. (past & past part. whiled; pres. part. whiling) To cause to pass away pleasantly or without irksomeness or disgust; to spend or pass; usually followed by away. "The lovely lady whiled the hours away."

While v. i. To loiter. (R.)

preposition

While prep. Until; till. (Obs. or Prov. Eng. & Scot.) "I may be conveyed into your chamber; I'll lie under your bed while midnight."

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Etymology of 'While'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"While" Quotes from Famous Books

... footing with the late Sir George Simpson, who for a number of years past lived at his ease at Lachine, and attended more, apparently, to his own affairs than to those of the Company. The latter bear evidence in every district of having been left entirely to themselves, while extreme discontent prevails in consequence of favouritism having regulated ...

— Canada and the States • Edward William Watkin

... man, and renowned in minstrelsy. Never was he apart from Hylas, not when midnoon was high in heaven, not when Dawn with her white horses speeds upwards to the dwelling of Zeus, not when the twittering nestlings look towards the perch, while their mother flaps her wings above the smoke-browned beam; and all this that the lad might be fashioned to his mind, and might drive a straight furrow, and come to the ...

— Theocritus, Bion and Moschus rendered into English Prose • Andrew Lang

... and fifty years after the hardened sky sailor is found describing with a boyish enthusiasm how thirty-six policemen were needed round that balloon; how enormous weights were attached to the cordage, only to be lifted feet above the ground; while the police were compelled to pass their staves through the meshes to prevent the cords cutting their hands. At this ascent Mr. Hollond was a passenger, and by the middle of the following November all Europe was ringing with the great ...

— The Dominion of the Air • J. M. Bacon

... created. In addition thereto two new reserves were created during the year—the Pine Mountain and Zaca Lake Reserve, in California, embracing 1,644,594 acres, and the Prescott Reserve, in Arizona, embracing 10,240 acres—while the Pecos River Reserve, in New Mexico, has been changed and enlarged to ...

— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various

... distinguished officer jumped out of bed at a bound, mounted a chair, and peered on tip-toe over the top, from which, with a glance of self-congratulation, he pulled the missing piece of apparel, sighed dejectedly as he descended, while he exclaimed: ...

— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

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