whiles
English
Pronunciation
- enPR: (h)wīlz, IPA(key): /(h)waɪlz/
- Rhymes: -aɪlz
- Homophone: wiles (in accents with the wine-whine merger)
Etymology 1
From while + -s (adverbial suffix); compare whilst.
Adverb
whiles (not comparable)
- (archaic or Scotland) sometimes; at times
- 1927, John Buchan, Witch Wood, published 1988, page 14:
- Man, I've diverted myself whiles with the science of the stars, and can make a shape at calculating a nativity.
-
- (archaic or Scotland) meanwhile
- 1820, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], OCLC 230694662:
- the good knight whiles humming to himself the lay of some majored troubadour
-
Conjunction
whiles
- (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 606515358, [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 606515358, [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.
-
Etymology 2
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Noun
whiles
- plural of while
Verb
whiles
- Third-person singular simple present indicative form of while
Scots
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ʍəilz/
- Rhymes: -əilz
Adverb
whiles
- Sometimes
- Whiles thay gang tae the strand, but maistly tae the bens- Sometimes they go to the beach, but mostly to the mountains