while

Less common meanings

4. 4
   spend timeverbtransitivein compounds

   To let a stretch of time go by in a leisurely, unhurried manner.

   Stuck at the station, we whiled away two hours over coffee and crosswords.

   Retirees in the town square while away the mornings arguing about baseball.

   UsageUsed with away: while away the hours, or while the hours away.

   Similaridle, laze, lounge

   Note

   The bare form, whiling the time, survives in older prose such as Robert Folkestone Williams's The Youth of Shakspeare (1839). A person as object belongs to the entertaining sense.

5. 5
   until (event)conjunctiondialectalNorthern EnglandScotland

   Used with the meaning of "until," marking the point up to which something continues.

   Stay where you are while I return with help.

   We'll not start the meeting while everyone's arrived.

   Similaruntil, till

   Note

   A northern usage that turns while into an endpoint. In Northern England and Scotland, I'll wait while you've finished painting means waiting until the job is done. Richard Morris and Walter Skeat record whel nu, "till now," from Swaledale in Yorkshire, in their Specimens of Early English.

6. 6
   until (time)prepositiondialectalNorthern EnglandScotland

   Used before a time expression with the meaning of "until" that point.

   The library is open while nine each evening.

   He said he'd be away while the end of the month.

   Similaruntil, till

   Note

   The same northern "until" as the dialect conjunction, placed here before a bare time expression rather than a clause. In Thomas Middleton and William Rowley's Wit at Several Weapons (c. 1613), a character offers to "lie under your bed while midnight," meaning until then. In older drama, read while followed by a time word as an endpoint, not a span.

7. 7
   go byverbarchaicintransitive

   Of a period of time, to go by or elapse.

   Years whiled. He aged, sank, sickened; and was not: / And it was said, 'A man intractable / And curst is gone.'

   1901, Thomas Hardy, “A Man”

   The tedious hours whiled slowly on, 'till the succeeding afternoon, when the expected carriage made its appearance much sooner than they had promised themselves.

   1764, Mrs. Gunning (Susannah), Family Pictures

   Note

   Time itself is the subject here, passing with no one to pass it. Thomas Hardy's "Years whiled." (1901) shows its compressed poetic force, and Mrs. Gunning's Family Pictures (1764) has hours that "whiled slowly on." Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

   • While has an archaic intransitive sense meaning to elapse, with a period of time as its subject. en.wiktionary.org
   • Thomas Hardy wrote the sentence "Years whiled." gutenberg.org
   • The Hardy quotation was published in 1901; the first edition's title-page date was 1902. gutenberg.org
   • Family Pictures is a novel by Mrs. Gunning, published in 1764. en.wikipedia.org
   • Family Pictures describes hours that "whiled slowly on." en.wiktionary.org
8. 8
   verbarchaic

   To help someone pass the time by giving them something to do or enjoy.

   In other worlds I whiled me now Through many a dark night long.

   2010, Dr Rudolf Steiner, Truth-Wrought-Words