wile
Americannoun
-
wiles
plural
-
a trick, artifice, or stratagem meant to fool, trap, or entice; device.
- Synonyms:
- maneuver, contrivance, deception
-
wiles, artful or beguiling behavior.
- Synonyms:
- maneuver, contrivance, deception
-
deceitful cunning; trickery.
verb (used with object)
verb phrase
noun
-
trickery, cunning, or craftiness
-
(usually plural) an artful or seductive trick or ploy
verb
Synonym Usage
See trick.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of wile
1125–75; (noun) Middle English; late Old English wil, perhaps < Old Norse vēl artifice, earlier *wihl-
Explanation
The noun wile is good for describing a particular kind of deviousness, but its plural form is most commonly used. Your charming brother might use his wiles to talk your parents into loaning him money again and again. You can describe your cousin's knack for getting exactly what he wants through slyness and trickery as his wile. Language experts can only guess about the origin of wile, though many believe it's related to the Old Norse vél, or "craft." Others think there may be a connection with the Old English word for "wizard," wicca.
Vocabulary lists containing wile
Beowulf
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Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie
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Tolkien Reading Day, List 7
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
However, the promised repayment date soon passed, wile Barnes continued reassuring them the money was coming.
From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2026
Miura was third in the free skate to seize the last podium place with a total of 253.69 points wile Tomono, fifth in the free skate, was fourth with 251.46.
From Barron's ● Nov. 2, 2025
The index of the economic outlook for the next 12 months slipped 0.4%, wile the outlook for the next five years climbed 5.2%.
From Reuters ● Dec. 12, 2022
Richards averaged 17 points and 10.3 rebounds, wile Carey had 16 points and 9.4 rebounds per game.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 10, 2021
Though some dictionaries now accept “ wile away,” which began as a spelling error, I’ll stick to the original.
From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner
He did it with speed, superior skills and passing wiles that allowed him to rack up goals by the dozen and helped his teammates do the same.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 7, 2025
England's scrum creaked, perhaps decisively, when the wisdom and wiles of Cole and Marler departed.
From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2023
My concern is that it’s all too tempting to yield to such wiles in the name of saving time and minimizing effort.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 29, 2023
That it’s probably illegal to own ramekins before age 25, and even when you do have them, you might lose them to divorce or to the uncareful wiles of teenage children.
From New York Times ● May 9, 2023
But even if Gollum could be trusted on this point, Frodo did not forget the wiles of the Enemy.
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
As they had before the quake, they smoked cigars and wiled away the afternoon.
From New York Times ● Feb. 14, 2023
Adults wiled away days attending church, playing badminton, taking pottery classes and listening to music on the shores of a picturesque western New York lake.
From New York Times ● Aug. 13, 2022
A few years ago, I wiled away an evening with friends in a thermal bath in Segesta, in the same waters where ancient demigods reputedly used to frolic.
From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2021
It was at France House, for example, where Lochte and his swimming teammates wiled away the night before their fateful gas station incident.
From Time ● Aug. 21, 2016
Nothing could be further from the non-contact European court dances with which the colonial sugar-cane and coffee-plantation owners had wiled away their evenings before Cuban independence.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
It comes down to trying to restore credibility in getting to the 2% Fed inflation target, said Moran of Wellington Management, “and are we wiling to take some of the medicine of cooling the economy?”
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 13, 2026
He said the case was brought to "a crashing halt" when Mr Collins outlined the limits of what he would be wiling to say in court.
From BBC ● Oct. 27, 2025
"Those banks seek safety of principle plus interest and are not interested in or wiling to forego either in the interest of dealing with the climate crisis," Wolff said.
From Salon ● Jun. 3, 2024
She also suggests asking yourself how much risk you’re wiling to take.
From Slate ● Nov. 16, 2023
In the main they were like other students the world over, I take it' and mostly, as they have shown, capable of wiling their own fame.
From Eben Holden, a tale of the north country by Irving Bacheller
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
