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wile

[wahyl]

Example Sentences Origin

noun

a trick, artifice, or stratagem meant to fool, trap, or entice; device.

wiles, artful or beguiling behavior.

deceitful cunning; trickery.

verb (used with object)

to beguile, entice, or lure (usually followed by away, from, into, etc.): The music wiled him from his study.

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Wile is one of our favorite verbs.

So is kibitz. Does it mean:

chat, to converse

to expurgate (a written work) by removing or modifying passages considered vulgar or objectionable.

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Verb phrase

wile away, to spend or pass (time), especially in a leisurely or pleasurable fashion: to wile away the long winter nights.

Origin:
1125–75; (noun) Middle English; late Old English wil, perhaps < Old Norse vēl artifice, earlier *wihl-

Related forms

out·wile, verb (used with object), -wiled, -wil·ing.

Can be confused: while, wile.

Synonyms
1, 2. deception, contrivance, maneuver. See trick. 3. chicanery, fraud.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To wile

Example Sentences

Cherundolo sent in a few decent balls but did not demonstrate any sort of offensive wile.

Wile questing these beliefs it ocoures that the peope might feel the same way towd us.

The wile of deceased testified that her husband had been of intemperate habits for some years and had neglected his business.

Collins

World English Dictionary

wile (waɪl)

—n
1.	trickery, cunning, or craftiness
2.	(usually plural) an artful or seductive trick or ploy

—vb
3.	(tr) to lure, beguile, or entice

[C12: from Old Norse vel craft; probably related to Old French wīle, Old English wīgle magic. See guile]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

wile

1154, wil "wile, trick," perhaps from O.N.Fr. *wile (O.Fr. guile), or directly from a Scand. source (cf. O.N. vel "trick, craft, fraud," vela "defraud"). Perhaps ultimately related to O.E. wicca "wizard" (see Wicca). Lighter sense of "amorous or playful trick" is from 1600.

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Wily is attested from c.1300.

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artifice pretty shift

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Matching Quote

"Dost thou ask what I mean by emancipation?... 1. It is "to reject with indignation, the wile and guilty phantasy, that man can hold property in man." 2. To pay the laborer his hire, for he is worthy of it. 3. No longer to deny him the right of marriage, but to "let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband," as saith the apostle. 4. To let parents have their own children, for they are the gift of the Lord to them, and no one else has any right to them. 5. No longer to withhold the advantages of education and the privilege of reading the bible. 6. To put the slave under the protection of equitable laws. Now, why should not all this be done immediately? Which of these things is to be done next year, and which the year after? and so on. Our immediate emancipation means, doing justice and loving mercy to-day—and this is what we call upon every slaveholder to do. I have seen too much of slavery to be a gradualist."

-Angelina Grimké

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