while away

English

Verb

while away (third-person singular simple present whiles away, present participle whiling away, simple past and past participle whiled away)

1. (transitive) To spend (time) idly but pleasantly

   We whiled away the hours playing cards.

   • 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter II, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:

     Heaven knows what pains the author has been at, what bitter experiences he has endured and what heartache suffered, to give some chance reader a few hours' relaxation or to while away the tedium of a journey.

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 12: Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 294:

     A posse of Dublin Metropolitan police superintended by the Chief Commissioner in person maintained order in the vast throng for whom the York street brass and reed band whiled away the intervening time by admirably rendering on their blackdraped instruments the matchless melody endeared to us from the cradle by Speranza's plaintive muse.

2. (intransitive) To elapse, to pass.
   • 2010, Lori Davis, Second Wind, page 65:

     The rest of the night hours whiled away for the prisoners as few slept.

   • 2015, Hank Carver, House of Cards: Five Full Contact Years as a Las Vegas Nightclub Bouncer:

     The hours whiled away and I steadily kept drinking, even though it had been years since I'd done any serious imbibing.

   • 2018, Kester James Finley, Twisted Reunions (The Keeper Chronicles, Book 2):

     As the hours whiled away, they discussed everything magical they had learned and how Odele had managed to become a Keeper and survive a full year without help or interference.

Usage notes

Sometimes misspelled as wile away.

Synonyms

• kill

Translations

spend (time) idly

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 消磨 (zh) (xiāomó)

• Finnish: viettää aikaa
• German: vertrödeln (de), vertreiben (de), totschlagen (de) (colloquial)
• Greek: περνώ (el) (pernó)
• Irish: meil
• Russian: корота́ть (ru) impf (korotátʹ), скорота́ть (ru) pf (skorotátʹ)
• Swedish: fördriva (sv)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Dutch: tijd verdrijven
• French: passer le temps (fr)
• Hungarian: vár, várakozik (hu) (with an aim/goal)
• Interlingua: passar le tempore
• Portuguese: passar o tempo
• Vietnamese: giết thời gian (vi)
• Spanish: pasar el rato, vagar (es)