wile

See also: Wile, wiłę, and wíle

English

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “wile”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Etymology

From Middle English wile, wyle, from 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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /waɪl/
• Rhymes: -aɪl
• Homophone: while

Noun

wile (plural wiles)

1. (usually in the plural) A trick or stratagem practiced for ensnaring or deception; a sly, insidious artifice

   He was seduced by her wiles.

   • Milton

     to frustrate all our plots and wiles

Synonyms

• beguilement
• allurement

Derived terms

• wileful
• wily

Related terms

• guile

Translations

trick or stratagem

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 詭計／诡计 (zh) (guǐjì), 诡计 (zh) (guǐjì), 計策／计策 (zh) (jìcè), 计策 (zh) (jìcè)

• Dutch: list (nl) f, fint (nl) f, sluwigheid f
• Finnish: kikka (fi)
• French: ruse (fr) f, leurre (fr) m
• German: Schlich (de) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Greek: πονηριά (el) f (poniriá), τέχνασμα (el) n (téchnasma),
• Irish: meang f
• Japanese: 策略 (ja) (さくりゃく, sakuryaku)
• Latin: sūtēla f
• Maori: rauhanga
• Russian: уло́вка (ru) f (ulóvka), хи́трость (ru) f (xítrostʹ), ухищре́ние (ru) n (uxiščrénije), трюк (ru) (trjuk)

Verb

1. To entice or lure
2. Archaic form of while (“to pass the time”)

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

Derived terms

• bewile
• outwile

Usage notes

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.

References

• Grammarist.com While away or wile away?
• Common Errors in the English Language Wile Away, While Away

Anagrams

• Lewi, Liew, Weil, lwei

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Mapudungun

Noun

wile (using Raguileo Alphabet)

1. tomorrow

Synonyms

• ule
• wvle

References

• Wixaleyiñ: Mapucezugun-wigkazugun pici hemvlcijka (Wixaleyiñ: Small Mapudungun-Spanish dictionary), Beretta, Marta; Cañumil, Dario; Cañumil, Tulio, 2008.

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Middle English

Etymology

From Old English wīl, wiġle (“wile, trick”), cognate with Old Norse vél (“artifice, craft”).

Noun

wile

1. wile, trick, artifice
2. a sorcerer

Derived terms

• wili

Descendants

• English: wile

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Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvi.lɛ/

Noun

wile m

1. locative/vocative singular of wił

Noun

wile f

1. dative/locative singular of wiła

Further reading

• Template:R:PWN