Link Centre Dictionary

while

UK/ʍaɪl/ US/waɪl/ very common

noun

1.

a period of indeterminate length (usually short) marked by some action or condition

  • “he was here for a little while”
  • “I need to rest for a piece”
  • “a spell of good weather”
  • “a patch of bad weather”
Synonyms

Origin

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).

Phrases

  • after a while
  • all the while
  • breathing while
  • build the plane while flying it
  • do-while loop
  • driving while black
  • driving while Mexican
  • even a blind pig can find an acorn once in a while
  • even a blind squirrel can find a nut once in a while
  • even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every once in a while
  • every once in a while
  • fiddle while Rome burns

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.