whiles

English

Etymology

From while +‎ -s (adverbial suffix); compare whilst.

Pronunciation

• enPR: wīlz, IPA^(key): /waɪlz/
• Rhymes: -aɪlz
• Homophone: wiles (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

Adverb

whiles (not comparable)

1. (archaic or Scotland) sometimes; at times
2. (archaic or Scotland) meanwhile
   • 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:

     the good knight whiles humming to himself the lay of some majored troubadour

Conjunction

whiles

1. (archaic or dialect) while, whilst
   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

     Portia: […] Whiles we shut the gate upon one wooer, another knocks at the door.

   • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

     for it so falls out,
     That what we have we prize not to the worth
     Whiles we enjoy it; but being lack'd and lost,
     Why, then we rack the value, then we find
     The virtue that possession would not show us
     Whiles it was ours.

Noun

whiles

1. plural of while

Verb

whiles

1. third-person singular simple present indicative of while

---

Scots

Pronunciation

• enPR: hwīlz, IPA^(key): /hwaɪlz/
• Rhymes: -aɪlz

Adverb

whiles

1. Sometimes

   Whiles thay gang tae the strand, but maistly tae the bens- Sometimes they go to the beach, but mostly to the mountains