wile

[ wahyl ]
See synonyms for: wilewiledwileswiling on Thesaurus.com

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

  2. wiles, artful or beguiling behavior.

  1. deceitful cunning; trickery.

verb (used with object),wiled, wil·ing.
  1. to beguile, entice, or lure (usually followed by away, from, into, etc.): The music wiled him from his study.

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

Origin of wile

1
1125–75; (noun) Middle English; late Old English wil, perhaps <Old Norse vēl artifice, earlier *wihl-

synonym study For wile

1, 2. See trick.

Other words for wile

Other words from wile

  • outwile, verb (used with object), out·wiled, out·wil·ing.

Words that may be confused with wile

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use wile in a sentence

  • In the state Louis was in, between man's perfidy and woman's wiles, any refuge from the world, seemed a heaven to him.

  • He steeled himself, for he had had his experience of woman's wiles; and his faith in masculine supremacy as a habit did not waver.

    Ancestors | Gertrude Atherton
  • Bonaparte told him he would represent the feeling of the Army of Italy, and help to bring to nothing the wiles of the royalists.

    Napoleon's Marshals | R. P. Dunn-Pattison
  • He laughed at her in keenest mockery, this Dorian Mountcastle, who was so tired of lovely woman and her deceitful wiles.

    They Looked and Loved | Mrs. Alex McVeigh Miller
  • Yet with all his wiles he could not so completely cover his track as not to excite the suspicions of the English.

    A short history of Rhode Island | George Washington Greene

British Dictionary definitions for wile

wile

/ (waɪl) /


noun
  1. trickery, cunning, or craftiness

  2. (usually plural) an artful or seductive trick or ploy

verb
  1. (tr) to lure, beguile, or entice

Origin of wile

1
C12: from Old Norse vel craft; probably related to Old French wīle, Old English wīgle magic. See guile

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012