conjunction, noun, verb
conjunction (also formal whilst especially in BrE)
1 during the time that sth is happening
SYNWHEN:
We must have been burgled while we were asleep. * Her parents died while she was still at school. * While I was waiting at the bus stop, three buses went by in the opposite direction.
2 at the same time as sth else is happening:
You can go swimming while I'm having lunch. * shoes mended while you wait
3 used to contrast two things:
While Tom's very good at science, his brother is absolutely hopeless. * Some people work better to music while others do not.
4 (used at the beginning of a sentence) although; in spite of the fact that...:
While I am willing to help, I do not have much time available.
noun [sing.] a period of time:
They chatted for a while. * I'll be back in a little while (= a short time). * I haven't seen him for quite a while (= a fairly long time). * They walked back together, talking all the while (= all the time).
IDIOMS see ONCEadv., WORTHadj.
Part of speech: verb
PHRASALVERBS
while sth<->away to spend time in a pleasant lazy way:
We whiled away the time reading and playing cards.
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About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for while is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Is while a noun, verb, or something else?
In this entry, while is tagged as verb.
Does while appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — while appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.
