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wile

[wahyl] noun, verb, wiled, wil⋅ing.
–noun
1. a trick, artifice, or stratagem meant to fool, trap, or entice; device.
2. wiles, artful or beguiling behavior.
3. deceitful cunning; trickery.
–verb (used with object)
4. to beguile, entice, or lure (usually fol. by away, from, into, etc.): The music wiled him from his study.
5. wile away, to spend or pass (time), esp. in a leisurely or pleasurable fashion: to wile away the long winter nights.

Origin:
1125–75; (n.) ME; late OE wil, perh. < ON vēl artifice, earlier *wihl-


1, 2. deception, contrivance, maneuver. See trick. 3. chicanery, fraud.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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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. Wily is attested from c.1300.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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