▪ I. wile, n.
(waɪl)
Forms: 2–5 wil, 4–8 wyle, (4 wylle, Sc. quhile, 5 whyle, wyhylle, wele, Sc. wyill), 5–6 wyll, (while, vyle, 6 wyell, 7 wiele), 4– wile.
[Origin and early history obscure. The earliest examples are from regions subjected to strong Scandinavian influence. Early ME. wīl may therefore perhaps represent prehistoric Scand. *wihl-, whence ON. vél craft, artifice, contrivance, engine (cf. the several compounds of this, and véla to defraud).
The current derivation of wile from an AF. var. of OF. guile guile n. with initial w is open to the objection that no such variant is known. Through similarity of sense wile prob. became associated with wiel, q.v.; cf. the parallelism of bywyle (which occurs beside bygyle in Shoreham's poems) and biwiȝelien (Layamon), biwihelin (St. Juliana). The relation of wile to the synonymous wilt is obscure.]
1. A crafty, cunning, or deceitful trick; a sly, insidious, or underhand artifice; a stratagem, ruse. Formerly sometimes in somewhat wider sense: A piece of deception, a deceit, a delusion. Chiefly pl. (in sing. now arch. or poet.).
| 1154 O.E. Chron. (Laud MS.) an. 1128 He hit dide forði þæt he wolde þurh his micele wiles ðær beon wær it tweolf monð oððe mare. c 1200 Ormin 6635 All þatt badd he þurrh swikedom & all þurrh ille wiless. c 1220 Bestiary 385 A wilde der is ðat is ful of fele wiles, fox is hire to name. Ibid. 541 Ðis deuel is mikel wið wil and maȝt. 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 361 Manyon trowyn on here wylys, And many tymes þe pye hem gylys. c 1330 ― Chron. Wace (Rolls) 539 Hereþ now of a quynte wyle, How eche of þo þoughte oþer gyle. 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 1360 Þe world..ledes a man with wrenkes and wyles. c 1350 Ipomadon 6674 Imayne hathe an while fonde And thought hym to haue begyld. 1390 Gower Conf. I. 129 With suche wiles as thei caste. Ibid. 130 Thei schope among hem such a wyle, The king was ded withinne a whyle. c 1400 Rom. Rose 4293 She knewe eche wrenche and euery gise Of love and euery wile. 1456 Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 189 To conquest landis and heritagis fra Cristin folk, with wylis and falshede. c 1485 Digby Myst. iii. 377 With wrath or wyhylles we xal hyrre wynne. 1558 G. Cavendish Poems (1825) II. 13 Whilest I was workyng witty whiles in Fraunce, I was at home supplanted. 1573 Satir. Poems Reform. xl. 50 Bot sum, perchance, that winks mair wylelie, Will say thay wait ane wyle that I na wist. 1590 Shakes. Com. Err. iv. iii. 10 Sure these are but imaginarie wiles, And lapland Sorcerers inhabite here. 1651 Hobbes Leviathan i. xiii. 61 By force, or wiles, to master the persons of all men he can. 1654 Gataker Disc. Apol. 36 He by a wile drew me to Preach one Afternoon on the Week Lecture day there. 1781 Cowper Hope 649 This..Rejects all treaty; penetrates all wiles. 1825 Scott Talism. xix, That Richard would burst through the flimsy wiles you spread for him. 1876 Swinburne Erechtheus 216 By the fraud of a two-fold wile. 1888 Bryce Amer. Commw. lxx. II. 549 The wiles by which its members are lured or driven to their goal. |
b. Without implication of deceit: A subtle contrivance; a skilful device or scheme; an artifice, ‘dodge’. Obs. or merged in prec. sense.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 4153 Bot sin he algat sal be ded Do it þan wit suilk a wile Þat yee your handes ne þer-wit file. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xxxiii. 149 Þai vse anoþer wyle for to get þis gold with. a 1400–50 Wars Alex. 1148 For wele wist þai þam nane to wyn to þe cite. c 1470 Henry Wallace ix. 1176 Wattir fra thaim forsuth can nocht be set; Sum wthyr wyill ws worthis for to get. 1508 Dunbar Gold. Targe 224, I coud eschew hir presence be no wyle. a 1628 Preston New Covt. (1634) 21 We think God not able to doe it, except we help him with wyles and tricks..of our own. 1830 A. Cunningham Brit. Painters (ed. 2) I. 235 He became acquainted with all the wiles and stratagems of position and light and shade. |
c. In lighter sense: An amorous or playful trick; a piece of sportive cunning or artfulness.
| c 1600 J. Lane in Shaks. Cent. Praise (1879) 32 Venus straight courted him with many a wile. 1632 Milton L'Allegro 27 Haste thee nymph, and bring with thee..Quips and Cranks, and wanton Wiles, Nods, and Becks, and Wreathed Smiles. a 1721 Prior Songs xiii, Victoria shews me all her wiles, Which yet I dare not shun. 1770 Goldsm. Des. Vill. 183 E'en children followed with endearing wile. a 1839 Praed Charades ix, And telling of Love's wiles To ears that listen. 1847 Emerson Repr. Men, Shakesp. Wks. (Bohn) I. 362 He read the hearts of men and women,..and their second thought, and wiles; the wiles of innocence. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. i. ii, Lady Tippins's winning wiles are contagious. 1880 Morris Ode of Life 17, I treasure up each baby wile. |
d. spec. A cunning turn or other trick of the hare to escape the hunters.
| 1691 Ray Creation i. (1692) 128 The wiles and ruses, which these timid Creatures make use of to save themselves. 1735 Somerville Chase ii. 202 The puzling Pack unravel Wile by Wile, Maze within Maze. 1781 W. Blane Ess. Hunting (1788) 210 The wiles of the Hare have been all along the study of my leisure hours. |
2. Deceit or deceitfulness; craft, cunning, subtlety, guile. Now rare.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus i. 719 Þow wost I do it for no wyle. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints Prol. 8 Gret foly, quhile, & vantones. c 1400 Beryn 2239 Falshode, wrong & while. 1426 Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. 1815 Sleythe, falshed, or any whyle. 15.. Dunbar Poems lxxxii. 41 That ȝe haue nether witt nor wyll To win ȝour selff ane bettir name! 1634 Milton Comus 906 Through the force, and through the wile Of unblest inchanter vile. 1814 Cary Dante, Inf. xx. 114 Michael Scot, Practised in every slight of magic wile. 1848 Lytton Harold v. iii, This Godwin is a man of treachery and wile. 1904 Sat. Rev. 7 May 576/1 The humour but not the wile of the publisher stopped at this point. |
3. a. Applied to particular mechanical contrivances: see quots. b. (nonce-use.) An ingenious or fanciful figure or device.
| 1674 N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. i. (1677) 18 Engines that we take Deer withal, are called Wiles. 1824 Mactaggart Gallovid. Encycl. 446 Throok the wyle, the thawcrook, the twister. 1825 Jamieson, Wile, wylie, an instrument for twisting straw ropes. Dumfr. 1849 Neale Seaton. Poems, Edom xxvi, Ivory, carved in thousand curious wiles. |
▪ II. wile, v.
[f. wile n., or aphetic f. biwile.]
† 1. trans. To deceive by a wile; to beguile, delude. Obs. rare (exc. as implied in other senses).
| c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xxx (Theodera) 311 Quhat, wenys þu I wald þe wile, Gud douchtir? |
2. To bring, draw, or get by a wile (a person or animal to or from a place, course of action, etc., or a thing from a person); to lead, induce, or obtain by craft or cunning.
| a 1400 Pistill of Susan 213 Wylyliche heo wyled hir wenches a-way. c 1400 Beryn 2691 Ȝit som ageyn hym wyled A grete part of his pepill. c 1460 Towneley Myst. viii. 233 Whence is yond warlow with his wand that thus wold wyle oure folk away? c 1475 Rauf Coilȝear 709 Allace, that I was hidder wylit. a 1500 Coventry Corpus Chr. Pl. ii. 840 From vs no man wyll hym wyle. c 1560 A. Scott Poems (S.T.S.) xxxiv. 26 The wysest woman þairout W{supt} wirdis may be wyllit To do þe deid. 1572 Satir. Poems Reform. xxxviii. 36 As the fals fowler..Deuoiris the pure volatill he wylis to the net. 1590 Greene Orl. Fur. (1599) 54 When Iuno wil'd the trull. 1599 T. Cutwode Caltha Poet. (Roxb.) xxiii, Wyelling fond louers sometime from their wits. a 1600 Montgomerie Misc. Poems xl. 13 My wofull hairt auay with thee thou wyld, Fra me to be exyld. 1789 Burns Blue-Eyed Lassie 9 She talk'd, she smil'd, my heart she wil'd. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xxii, He could wile the very flounders out o' the Firth. 1853 Mrs. Gaskell Ruth xviii, He's such winning ways he wiles one over to anything. 1879 Stevenson Lay Morals, etc. (1911) 297 She could neither be driven nor wiled into the parish kirk. |
| fig. 1847 Tennyson Princess vii. 48 To wile the length from languorous hours, and draw The sting from pain. |
† b. refl. To get away by stealth, steal away.
| ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 3908 Whills he myghte wile hyme awaye, and wyne to hir speche. |
3. (as a substitute for while v. 3) To divert attention pleasantly from (something painful or tedious); to charm away; esp. to cause (time) to pass away pleasantly or insensibly: = beguile v. 5.
Cf. L. decipere tempus, F. tromper le temps.
| 1796 F. Burney Camilla iii. x, He persuaded his sisters, therefore, to walk out with him, to wile away at once expectation and retrospection. 1810 Scott Lady of L. ii. x, Her smile..Wiled the old harper's mood away. 1817 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xxiv. II. 379 Happy industry, that wiles the toils of labour with a song. 1838 Dickens O. Twist xlvi, I was reading a book to-night, to wile the time away. 1840 E. E. Napier Scenes & Sports For. Lands II. v. 172 We..used to wile away the day with all manner of fun. 1880 ‘Vernon Lee’ Italy ii. iii. 59 Foreigners who came to study art or to wile away a lazy existence. |
Hence wiling vbl. n.
| 1583 Leg. Bp. St. Androis 971 The vther..Concludit schortlie for to slea him, For vyling of his syluer fra him. |
▪ III. wile
obs. f. vile a., wale n.2 and v.1, weel2, while, will.