wile

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• /waɪl/
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• rhymes with -aɪl
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• homophone: while
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• CMU ARPABET: W AY1 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
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From Middle English wile, an occupational surname for a trapper or a nickname for a wily person.

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.

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.

31 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Bulgarian: хитрина (hitrina) — trick or stratagem
• Bulgarian: уловка (ulovka) — trick or stratagem
• Chinese Mandarin: 詭計 /诡计 (guǐjì) — trick or stratagem
• Chinese Mandarin: 計策 /计策 (jìcè) — trick or stratagem
• Czech: trik — trick or stratagem
• Czech: lest — trick or stratagem
• Czech: fígl — trick or stratagem
• Dutch: list — trick or stratagem
• Dutch: fint — trick or stratagem
• Dutch: sluwigheid — trick or stratagem
• Finnish: kikka — trick or stratagem
• French: ruse — trick or stratagem
• French: leurre — trick or stratagem
• German: Schlich — trick or stratagem
• Gothic: 𐌻𐌹𐍃𐍄𐍃 (lists) — trick or stratagem
• Greek: πονηριά (poniriá) — trick or stratagem
• Greek: τέχνασμα (téchnasma) — trick or stratagem
• Irish: meang — trick or stratagem
• Japanese: 策略 (sakuryaku) — trick or stratagem
• Latin: sūtēla — trick or stratagem
• Māori: rauhanga — trick or stratagem
• Polish: fortel — trick or stratagem
• Polish: podstęp — trick or stratagem
• Polish: sztuczka — trick or stratagem
• Russian: уло́вка (ulóvka) — trick or stratagem
• Russian: хи́трость (xítrostʹ) — trick or stratagem
• Russian: ухищре́ние (uxiščrénije) — trick or stratagem
• Russian: трюк (trjuk) — trick or stratagem
• Ukrainian: хи́трість (xýtristʹ) — trick or stratagem
• Ukrainian: хитрува́ння (xytruvánnja) — trick or stratagem
• French: tuer le temps — to pass the time