Meaning

3 senses
  1. (in compounds, transitive)To pass (time) idly.

    I whiled away the hours whilst waiting for him to arrive

    vertrödeln

  2. (transitive)To occupy or entertain (someone) in order to let time pass.

    unterhalten, beschäftigen, (gemeinsam) die Zeit verbringen

  3. (archaic, intransitive)To elapse, to pass.

Examples

5938 sentences
  1. Let me think for a while.

    Дай-но трохи подумаю.

    ruДайте мне немного подумать.

    deLass mich ein bisschen nachdenken.

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  2. He remained silent for a while.

    Якийсь час він мовчав.

    deEr blieb eine Zeitlang still.

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  3. It happened while I wasn't looking.

    Це сталося, поки я не дивився.

    ruЭто случилось, пока я не смотрел.

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  4. Please wait a little while longer.

    Будь ласка, почекай ще трохи.

    ruПодождите еще немного, пожалуйста.

    deWarten Sie bitte noch etwas.

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  5. I fell asleep while watching TV.

    Я заснув перед телевізором.

    ruЯ заснул, смотря телевизор.

    deIch bin beim Fernsehen eingeschlafen.

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Translations

2 languages
Deutsch
By meaning 2
to loiter:
to entertain (someone) in order to let time pass:

Origin

From Middle English whyle, from Old English hwīl, from Proto-West Germanic *hwīlu, from Pr

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 and Norwegian Bokmål hvile (“rest”), Norwegian Nynorsk kvila (“rest”), Swedish vila (“rest”), Faroese and Icelandic hvíla (“rest”)) from Proto-Indo-European *kʷyeh₁- (“to rest”). Cognate with Albanian sillë (“breakfast”), Latin tranquillus, Sanskrit चिर (cirá), Persian شاد (šâd).

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

whiles, whiling, whiled, whiled
Base formwhile · to while
3rd person singularwhiles
Present participlewhiling
Past simplewhiled
Past participlewhiled

regular · Lesson

Present simpleLesson

I, you, we, theywhile
he, she, itwhiles

Past simpleLesson

all personswhiled

Present perfectLesson

I, you, we, theyhave whiled
he, she, ithas whiled

Future simple (will)Lesson

all personswill while

Synonyms

3 synonyms

Word family

1 related words
Derivedwhile away

Collocations

12 patterns
  • for a while
  • in a while
  • do that while
  • fell asleep while
  • quite a while
  • a while since
  • dog while
  • a little while
  • a while ago
  • a while longer
  • my dog while
  • take a while

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
while — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto