Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Wile   Listen
verb
Wile  v. t.  
1.
To practice artifice upon; to deceive; to beguile; to allure. (R.)
2.
To draw or turn away, as by diversion; to while or while away; to cause to pass pleasantly.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar





"Wile" Quotes from Famous Books



... for the conflict of the day. His engagements did not permit him to give me his assistance in my own matters until the following morning. He begged me to excuse him until dinner-time—to make myself perfectly at home—to wile away an hour or so in his library—and, when I got tired of that, to take what amusement I could amongst the lions of the town—offering which advice, he quitted me and his house with a head much more heavily laden, ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 54, No. 335, September 1843 • Various

... arts th' enchantress practised to beguile Some new admirer in her well-spread snare; Nor used with all, nor always the same wile, But shaped to every taste her grace and air: Here cloister'd is her eye's dark pupil, there In full voluptuous languishment is roll'd; Now these her kindness, those her anger bear, Spurr'd on or check'd ...
— The Book of the Epic • Helene A. Guerber

... stereotyped childishness, its quickness to learn and slowness to unlearn, prepare for the next stage of your enterprise. Lay out your scheme of emigration, get the money where you can, that is to say, call it flown from heaven and wile it out of earthly pockets, anticipate all possible emergencies and wants by land and sea, finish for the time the much epistolary correspondence to which this same fragment of humanity has given rise, tempt the deep with your restless charge, bear the ...
— God's Answers - A Record Of Miss Annie Macpherson's Work at the - Home of Industry, Spitalfields, London, and in Canada • Clara M. S. Lowe

... try it, Si," roared Old Cale. "We done enuff as 'tis, atakin' ther game away from 'em, without layin' a hand on ther hides. But ye'd better skip out, as Si sez, younkers. An' say, wile I think o' it, jest tell thet sneak, Jim Hasty, fur me, thet I'm agoin' ter keep my word 'bout them ears o' his'n. I'll larn him what it means ...
— The Boy Scouts in the Maine Woods - The New Test for the Silver Fox Patrol • Herbert Carter

... mouth, that the wear of the world hath taught No glitter of wile or traitorie, More soft than a cloud in the sunset caught, Or the heart of a crimson peony; Oh turn not its beauty away from me; To kiss it and cling to it early and late Shall make sweet minutes of days that flee, In the year yet, ...
— Among the Millet and Other Poems • Archibald Lampman

... ever the like o' that, laird?' said Saddletree to Dumbiedikes, when the counsel had ended his speech. 'There's a chiel can spin a muckle pirn out o' a wee tait o' tow!... And he's cleckit this great muckle bird out o' this wee egg! He could wile the very flounders out ...
— The Proverbs of Scotland • Alexander Hislop

... with might in grievous blindness of soul; hard of heart is he, for that erewhile he promised me and pledged his nod that not till I had wasted well-walled Ilios should I return; but now see I that he planned a cruel wile and biddeth me return to Argos dishonoured, with the loss of many of my folk. So meseems it pleaseth most mighty Zeus, who hath laid low the head of many a city, yea, and shall lay low; for his is highest power. Shame is this even for ...
— The Iliad of Homer • Homer (Lang, Leaf, Myers trans.)

... Eleven months past and longer space I have abode your dev'lish drifts, While you have sought both man and place, And set your snares, with all your shifts, The faultless foot to wrap in wile With any guilt, by any guile: And now you see that will not be, How can you thus for shame agree To keep him ...
— Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth • Lucy Aikin

... His looks adorned the venerable place: Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway, And fools who came to scoff remained to pray. The service past, around the pious man, With steady zeal, each honest rustic ran; Even children followed with endearing wile, And plucked his gown to share the good man's smile. His ready smile a parent's warmth expressed; Their welfare pleased him, and their cares distressed; To them his heart, his love, his griefs ...
— Six Centuries of English Poetry - Tennyson to Chaucer • James Baldwin

... Love protested, vowed he loathed coffee, that it made him sick, that he preferred prussic acid; Reginald was inexorable, and the boy was obliged to submit. In like manner, no wile or device could save him from having to share the slice of bread; nor, when he did put it to his lips, could any grimace or protest hide the almost ravenous eagerness with which at ...
— Reginald Cruden - A Tale of City Life • Talbot Baines Reed

... of her kind and her time. To allure a man by every wile she knew, and having won him to keep him uncertain and uneasy, was her perfectly simple creed. So she reduced love to its cheapest terms, passion and jealousy, played on them both, and made Graham ...
— Dangerous Days • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... if by simple wile Thy soul has strayed from honor's track, 'Tis mercy only can beguile, By gentle ways, the wanderer back. Go, go, be innocent and live! The tongues of men may wound thee sore, But heaven in pity can forgive, And bids thee go and ...
— Narrative of Richard Lee Mason in the Pioneer West, 1819 • Richard Lee Mason

... a face was hers to brighten light, And give back sunshine with an added glow, To wile each moment with a fresh delight, And part of memory's best contentment grow! Oh, how her voice, as with an inmate's right, Into the strangest heart would welcome go, And make it sweet, and ready to become Of white and ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell • James Lowell

... much-frequented watering-place, has been long celebrated. The following account of it in the fifteenth century is interesting. Those warriors who would wile away the interval between one campaign and another agreeably, betook themselves to Baden in Aargau. Here in a narrow valley, where the Limmat flows through its rocky bed, are hot springs of highly medicinal properties. Hither, to the numerous houses of public entertainment, resorted ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. XIX. No. 554, Saturday, June 30, 1832 • Various

... harm, that he belevethe not feithfully in God. And natheles he wil gladly here speke of God; and he suffrethe wel, that Cristene men duelle in his lordschipe, and that men of his feythe ben made Cristene men, zif thei wile, thorghe out alle his contree. For he defendethe no man to holde no lawe, other than ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, - and Discoveries of The English Nation, Volume 9 - Asia, Part 2 • Richard Hakluyt

... finesse, imposition, imposture, swindle, humbug, bubble, wile, deception, stratagem, bunko, blind, thimblerigging; impostor, deceiver, quack, mountebank, thimblerigger, charlatan, empiric, trickster, swindler, blackleg, bamboozler, sharper; delusion, ...
— Putnam's Word Book • Louis A. Flemming

... broad brow let there be A type of Ireland's history; Pious, generous, deep and warm, Strong and changeful as a storm; Let whole centuries of wrong Upon his recollection throng— Strongbow's force, and Henry's wile, Tudor's wrath, and Stuart's guile, And iron Strafford's tiger jaws, And brutal Brunswick's penal laws; Not forgetting Saxon faith, Not forgetting Norman scath, Not forgetting William's word, Not forgetting ...
— Thomas Davis, Selections from his Prose and Poetry • Thomas Davis

... they were designed to supply the place of the Greek and Roman theatre, which had been banished from the Church. The plays were written and performed by the clergy. They seem to have first been employed to wile away the dulness of the cloister, but were very soon introduced to the public. Adam and Eve in Paradise, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection were theatrized. The effect could hardly be salutary. The different persons ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. IV, No. 22, Aug., 1859 • Various

... Venetian subtlety, was now as much at fault as everybody else. In vain had they deliberated together, day after day, upon his probable purposes; in vain had they schemed to intercept his person, or offered high rewards for tracing his retreats. Snares had been laid for him in vain; every wile had proved abortive, every plot had been counterplotted. And both involuntarily confessed that they had now ...
— Memorials and Other Papers • Thomas de Quincey

... 'It is a wile of the enemy,' said Stopchase. 'Truly, it were no marvel to me were the good mare at this moment eating her oats in the very stall where we have even but now in vain sought her. I will go and search ...
— St. George and St. Michael • George MacDonald

... words "stratagem" and "strategist" sufficiently indicate that craft and wile are part of the professional equipment of great warriors, but with them these are not, and cannot be, predominant. Their skill is not so much to contrive success by deceiving an enemy as to command it by local superiority of force, either exerted in violence, or imposing submission by mere ...
— Story of the War in South Africa - 1899-1900 • Alfred T. Mahan

... and more consonant with the Puritan temper to abolish a practice than to elevate it and clear away abuses: and the half-instructed mind is taught with fatal facility to condemn use and abuse in a lump, to believe carol-singing a wile of the Evil One because Bill once went around carol-singing and came ...
— From a Cornish Window - A New Edition • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... store, And when the churls the chase gave o'er, And evening sunk upon the vale, With rubbing head and upright tail, Pacing before him to and fro, Puss lured him on the way to go— Coaxing him on, with tender wile, O'er heath and down for many a mile. Ask me not how her course she knows. He from Whom every instinct flows Hath breathed into His creatures power, Giving to each its needful dower; And strive and question as we will, We ...
— More Bywords • Charlotte M. Yonge

... school is, I admit, bad for the weak: it is pastime to the strong, and serves to wile away an idle hour. This work exhibits great ...
— Rambles in the Islands of Corsica and Sardinia - with Notices of their History, Antiquities, and Present Condition. • Thomas Forester

... quip and wanton wile, And learn you can't endure the Towerless season, O William, I shall not be petty ...
— Something Else Again • Franklin P. Adams

... there were even pious souls who, in strictest confidence, went so far as to hazard the opinion that the lady was not quite "canny"; she might, they thought, quite possibly turn out to be an imp of the Evil One sent with her gold to wile Bryan's soul to perdition. The belief was not more fantastic than many another that prevailed at that day, and later; and the fact that she was never known to go to mass, nor had been seen to cross the threshold of a ...
— Stories of the Border Marches • John Lang and Jean Lang

... Yellett, undoubtedly filled a long-felt want. Presiding over a school of six-imp power for a week, however, had humbled Mary to the point of seriously considering a letter to the home government, meekly asking for return transportation. But this was before feminine wile had struggled with feminine vanity, and feminine wile won the day. School still continued to open at six, from which early and unusual hour it continued, without recess or interruption, till noon, when dinner pleasantly invaded the scholastic monotony, ...
— Judith Of The Plains • Marie Manning

... those narrow shoulders of yours, neighbor," declared Ethan Allen, striking the old ranger heartily on the back. "That little wile finished them. And this is the boy I saw trailing through the bushes, is it?" and he seized Enoch and turned his face upward that he might the better view his features. "Why, holloa, my little man! I've ...
— With Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga • W. Bert Foster

... Poised 'twixt the world and her—acme of joys! Antony took her of the double choice. The ice-cold heart that passion seldom warms, Would find heat torrid in that queen's soft arms. She won without a single woman's wile, Illumining the earth with peerless smile. Come in!—but muffle closely up your face, No grateful scents ...
— Poems • Victor Hugo

... powerless to keep him beside her, when that mad fit of passion seized him to go on one of those wild quests, wherefrom she always feared he could not return alive: and this, although she might use every noble artifice, every tender wile of which a loving and beautiful wife ...
— The Elusive Pimpernel • Baroness Emmuska Orczy

... met him, though she smiled no more, She looked a sadness sweeter than her smile, As if her heart had deeper thoughts in store She must not own, but cherished more the while For that compression in its burning core; Even Innocence itself has many a wile, And will not dare to trust itself with truth, And Love is taught hypocrisy ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 6 • Lord Byron

... a little of contempt in the glance with which Sergius noted the abject terror of the sturdy veteran. Utterly at a loss to explain the apparitions, he never doubted for a moment but that they were the product of some human wile. ...
— The Lion's Brood • Duffield Osborne

... de bigeon: "If you should brint de songs Or oder dings of Breitmann Vhich to dem on-belongs, Dey will tread de road of Sturm and Drang, Die wile es möhte leben,[75] Und be mis-geborn in pattle- To ...
— The Breitmann Ballads • Charles G. Leland

... there was something almost diabolical about the man; he was here, he was there, he was everywhere, and yet, when the search was up, he was nowhere. Tales were told of his eloquence that increased the impression that he made a thousand-fold; it was said that he could wile birds off their branches and the beasts from their lairs; and this eloquence, it was known, could be heard only by initiates, in far-off country houses, or in quiet, unsuspected places in the cities. He preached ...
— Come Rack! Come Rope! • Robert Hugh Benson

... without appearing to recognize him. Babington's blood began to resume its normal position again, though he felt that this seeming ignorance of his identity might be a mere veneer, a wile of guile, as the bard puts it. He remembered, with a pang, a story in some magazine where a prisoner was subjected to what the light-hearted inquisitors called the torture of hope. He was allowed to escape from prison, and pass guards and sentries apparently ...
— Tales of St. Austin's • P. G. Wodehouse

... demand him for the purpose of destroying Troy, entrust not that to me. The son of Telamon will be better to go, and by his eloquence will soften the hero, maddened by diseases and anger, or by some wile will skilfully bring him thence. Sooner will Simois flow backward, and Ida stand without foliage, and Achaia promise aid to Troy, than, my breast being inactive in your interest, the skill of stupid Ajax shall avail ...
— The Metamorphoses of Ovid - Literally Translated into English Prose, with Copious Notes - and Explanations • Publius Ovidius Naso

... there 's many a mile; They 've right men in Derry, no doubt; But give me the Kerry man's blarneying smile, And give me the Kerry girl's conjuring wile, And lips, like a peach, in ...
— Sprays of Shamrock • Clinton Scollard

... late hours. When the minute details of her toilette for the night were over, and she had confided her beautiful body to the snowy sheets of her couch, some new novel or fashionable magazine helped her wile away the time until sleep came to her. Christian left his room, like a good country gentleman, at sunrise; he left it either for the chase—or to oversee workmen, who were continually being employed upon some part of his domain. ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet

... officers and men, and as these gained health and strength, the life on board ship became livelier, and more jovial. Singing and cards occupied the evenings, while in the daytime they played quoits, rings of rope being used for that purpose, and other games with which passengers usually wile away the monotony ...
— With Clive in India - Or, The Beginnings of an Empire • G. A. Henty

... golden smile, Assiduous wait upon her, And gather gear by every wile That's justified by honour:— Not for to hide it in a hedge, Nor for a train attendant, But for the ...
— The Letters of Robert Burns • Robert Burns

... shocking language," observed a thin, prim, red-nosed lady, with a vinegar aspect, who sat erect, and apparently fearless, in the corner of the coach—"very shocking language, indeed. Why, my good man, should you form any such wile kimparison?" ...
— The Black Baronet; or, The Chronicles Of Ballytrain - The Works of William Carleton, Volume One • William Carleton

... His wile brought out and mixed the liquor, repeating to herself: 'And so for this fine castle in the air we are ...
— Forgotten Tales of Long Ago • E. V. Lucas

... sower, and the contact of believers with unbelievers appears in the tares; but I think these are in either case incidental and subordinate, while the leading idea of the first is the reception given to the gospel by different classes of men, and the leading idea of the second is the wile of the devil in his effort to destroy the ...
— The Parables of Our Lord • William Arnot

... own and put their clasped hands across her lap. They became in a way hallowed by their attitude, and the world seemed good to her again as she looked down at the two children, beautiful as only children can be, innocent of wile, of hardship and of crime, safe at home and praying to their heavenly Father from whose presence they had ...
— The Cup of Fury - A Novel of Cities and Shipyards • Rupert Hughes

... Wicker salikajxo. Wide largxa. Widen plilargxigi. Widow vidvino. Widower vidvo. Widowhood vidveco. Width largxeco. Width, in lauxlargxe. Wield manpreni, manregi. Wife edzino. Wig peruko. Wild sovagxa. Wilderness dezerto. Wile ruzo. Wilful obstina. Will, to make testamenti. Will (bequeath) testamenti. Will testamento. Will-o'-the-wisp erarlumo. Willing, to be voli. Willingly volonte. Willow saliko. Willy-nilly vole-nevole. Wily ruza. Win gajni. Wince ...
— English-Esperanto Dictionary • John Charles O'Connor and Charles Frederic Hayes

... ever revealing a sign of the eagerness she felt for the fray. In addition she made herself a great favourite of the wealthy baronet, and recognising in him a means of possibly exercising some power over Denis, cultivated his affection by every wile of which her clever race ...
— Too Old for Dolls - A Novel • Anthony Mario Ludovici

... dancing girl, With an unromantic style, With borrowed colour and curl, With fixed mechanical smile, With many a hackneyed wile, With ungrammatical lips, And corns that ...
— The Bab Ballads • W. S. Gilbert

... his title right Elizabeth of York espouses, Thus uniting the two Houses. This Henry Seven of Tudor line To misers' habits did incline; Twelve millions stated to possess, A tidy little fortune! Yes! Star Chamber Much he managed to extort By means of a Star Chamber Court From the rich nobles; A new wile For adding to the kingly pile. With cash in hand he could attain His wish as Autocrat to reign; As sole possessor of the guns The King no risk ...
— A Humorous History of England • C. Harrison

... but as a barrier to keep from rising to a great good; 'for God doth know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods.' These are still the two lies which wile us to sin: 'It will do you no harm,' and 'You are cheating yourselves out of good by not ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers • Alexander Maclaren

... unquenchable! Thus far, however, had she advanced into the flower of fair maidenhood, undisturbed by any warmer dream than devoted affection toward her parent, whose wayward grief she could understand if she could not appreciate, and whom she strove by every gentle wile to wean from his morbid fancies; and earnest love toward her sister, whom she, indeed, almost adored—perhaps adored the more from the very difference of their minds, and for her ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII No. 1 January 1848 • Various

... generously kind, Thou know'st not her all-penetrating mind. But, should she conquer thee by female wile, Thou shalt not fall a victim to her guile. To-morrow's high divan shall seal her fate; Her wit may free her; or she'll be thy mate. Enough ...
— Turandot: The Chinese Sphinx • Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller

... ye're coming, is it?" I cried. "Ah, man Alan, you can wile your old wives, but you ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 11 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... golden smile, Assiduous wait upon her; And gather gear by ev'ry wile That's justified by honour; Not for to hide it in a hedge, Nor for a train-attendant; But for the glorious privilege ...
— Robert Burns - How To Know Him • William Allan Neilson

... him that she was Virtue, and that, if he would follow her, she would lead him through many hard trials, but that he would be glorious at last, and be blest among the gods. The other was Vice, and she tried to wile him by a smooth life among wine-cups and dances and flowers and sports, all to be enjoyed at once. But the choice of Hercules was Virtue, and it was well for him, for Jupiter, to make up for Juno's cheat, had sworn that, if he fulfilled twelve ...
— Aunt Charlotte's Stories of Greek History • Charlotte M. Yonge

... me such wholesome lessons as I might have expected, I should have shown the impudent rascal the door. Alas! I began to be weary of my experience and the fruits of it; I began to feel the horrors of a great void; I had need of some slight passion to wile away the dreary hours. I therefore made this Mercury welcome, and told him I should be obliged by his presenting me to some beauties, neither too easy nor too ...
— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt

... are sleepy, Geoffrey. The rest of my mournful history will help to wile away the tedium of ...
— The Monctons: A Novel, Volume I • Susanna Moodie

... the brilliant essayist and poet, has long occupied an exalted place in English literature. He was the son of an English clergyman, was born in Wiltshire, and educated at Oxford; he died at "Holland House" (the property of his wile, to whom he had been married but about two years), and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Several years of his life were spent in the political affairs of his time, he held several public offices, ...
— McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader • William Holmes McGuffey

... instance, could wile away several hours each day in writing, an occupation which, while it would fill up the dreary vacuum of a prison life, as would the moderate use of snuff and tobacco cheer it, and soothe that mental irritation consequent upon seclusion. But ...
— The Eureka Stockade • Carboni Raffaello

... beauty drooped in prisoned bower, None ever soothed his most unguarded hour, Yes—it was Love—if thoughts of tenderness, Tried in temptation, strengthened by distress, Unmoved by absence, firm in every clime, And yet—Oh more than all!—untired by Time; Which nor defeated hope, nor baffled wile, Could render sullen were She near to smile, Nor rage could fire, nor sickness fret to vent On her one murmur of his discontent; 300 Which still would meet with joy, with calmness part, Lest that his look of grief should reach her heart; Which nought ...
— The Works Of Lord Byron, Vol. 3 (of 7) • Lord Byron

... o' fellehs back yonder who was all unsaddled and fast asleep, and jumped up worse scared'n a drove o' wile hogs. We both sort o' got a little mad and jess swapped a few shots, you know, kind o' tit for tat, as it were. Enemy's loss unknown." He stooped more than ever in the shoulders, and laughed. The men were amused. "If you see 'em, I'd like you to mention me"— He paused to exchange ...
— Dr. Sevier • George W. Cable

... stirrin' ma blood tonight, On de night of de young new year, Wile de camp is warm an' de fire is bright, An' de bottle is close at han'— Out on de reever de nort' win' blow, Down on de valley is pile de snow, But w'at do we care so long we know We 're safe on ...
— The Voyageur and Other Poems • William Henry Drummond

... swing round me in the dazzling sunlight. A little further on I come upon a whole brood of nineteen little wild ducks. The old mothers are a good deal tamer now than they were in the shooting season. Many a time have they got up, just out of shot, when I was trying to wile away the time during the great frost with a little stalking. A kingfisher shoots past; but I have given up trying to find her nest. There is a brood of dabchicks, and, a little further on, another family of ...
— A Cotswold Village • J. Arthur Gibbs

... body? His hands and feet were like ice, his brow like fire; his ears rung with supernatural roaring; a nausea had seized upon him, and death he would have welcomed. In vain, in vain he courted repose; in vain, in vain he had recourse to every expedient to wile himself to slumber. Each minute he started from his pillow with some phrase which reminded him of his late fearful society. Hour after hour moved on with its leaden pace; each hour he heard strike, and each hour seemed an age. Each hour was only a signal to cast off some covering, ...
— The Young Duke • Benjamin Disraeli

... dear, We implore thy powerful hand To undo the charmed band Of true virgin here distressed Through the force and through the wile Of unblessed ...
— Milton's Comus • John Milton

... tranquil than has been the state of Rome all winter. Every wile has been used by the Oscurantists to excite the people, but their confidence in their leaders could not be broken. A little mutiny in the troops, stimulated by letters from their old leaders, was quelled in a moment. The day after the proclamation of the ...
— At Home And Abroad - Or, Things And Thoughts In America and Europe • Margaret Fuller Ossoli

... to the ground," he said. "It's wile an' stratagem which I like. Lead on to this ford, Henry, an' we'll lay down an' rest beside it till they ...
— The Keepers of the Trail - A Story of the Great Woods • Joseph A. Altsheler

... it, Prince? It is witchery; it is the wile of Beelzebub waiting to snatch your soul, and if you hearken to it you shall pass through the fire—through the fire to Moloch, if not in the flesh, then in the spirit, which is to all eternity. Oh! not in vain do I fear for you, my son, and not without reason was I warned in a dream. Listen: ...
— Elissa • H. Rider Haggard

... craft, her sleight and hidden guile You partly wot, her acts and arts untrue, How to your camp she came, and by what wile The greatest lords and princes thence she drew; You know she turned them first to monsters vile, And kept them since closed up in secret mew, Lastly, to Gaza-ward in bonds them sent, Whom young ...
— Jerusalem Delivered • Torquato Tasso

... tried mankind, * I've eaten that which only tasted he:[FN257] Their amity proved naught but wile and guile, * Their faith I found was ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 4 • Richard F. Burton

... coast of Ponthieu, where he was taken by the countrie people, & presented to the earle of Ponthieu named Guie or Guido, who kept him as prisoner, meaning to put him to a grieuous ransome. But Harold remembring himselfe of a wile, dispatched a messenger forth with all speed vnto William, duke of Normandie, signifieng vnto him, that he being sent from king Edward to confirme such articles, as other meane men that had beene sent vnto him afore had talked of, by chance he was fallen into the hands of the earle of Ponthieu, ...
— Chronicles (1 of 6): The Historie of England (8 of 8) - The Eight Booke of the Historie of England • Raphael Holinshed

... prognostications, of the reign which was to come. Shortly before five, when the birds were already in full chorus in Kensington Gardens, the party stood at the main door, demanding admission. This was another and ruder summons than the musical serenade which had been planned to wile the gentle sleeper sweetly from her slumbers and to hail her natal day not a month before. That had been a graceful, sentimental recognition of a glad event; this was an unvarnished, well-nigh stern arousal to the world of grave business and anxious care, following the mournful announcement ...
— Life of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen V.1. • Sarah Tytler

... day wove itself into another with the joy of sunlight over both their lives. He took to going regularly to Withersby Hall, and became an expected guest, dropping in at all hours to wile away an hour or two in 'Toinette's company, or else to have a quiet game of billiards with Brellier, or a cigar in company with both of them, in the garden, while the sun was still up. He never mentioned the flames to them again. But he never investigated them either. He had promised ...
— The Riddle of the Frozen Flame • Mary E. Hanshew

... of love a smile can bring, No kiss wile back the breath To cold lips: I no answer wring From this ...
— The Poetical Works of George MacDonald in Two Volumes, Volume I • George MacDonald

... story, Kenneth? I have a strong desire to go over this poor life of mine again in memory, and by giving my thoughts utterance it may be that they will take more vivid shape. For the rest my tale may wile away a little of the time that's left, and when you have heard me you shall judge me, ...
— The Tavern Knight • Rafael Sabatini

... this evidently in his eye when he wrote the lines 'Some hint the lover's harmless wile,' &c., ...
— The Poetical Works Of Alexander Pope, Vol. 1 • Alexander Pope et al

... to her, nor had he been to her in the night; and that it was his little lap-dog, called Below, which had scratched him, while he played with it that very morning; that his old Dorothy could bear witness to this, and that the cunning witch had only made use of this wile to divide the court against itself, thereby, and with the devil's help, to gain her own advantage, inasmuch as she was a most cunning creature, as the court would soon ...
— Sidonia The Sorceress V2 • William Mienhold

... trade. He loved his foster-parents, and desired no others. He had a miller's thumb, and he flattened it with double pains now that his right to it was disputed. He would press Mrs. Lake's thin fingers against it in proof that he belonged to her, and the simple wile was successful, for she would smile and say, "Ay, ay, love! Thee's a miller's boy, for thee've got ...
— Jan of the Windmill • Juliana Horatia Ewing

... Never feel, and never think; What's love? what's fame? a sigh, a smile. Friendship? but a hollow wile. If you've any thought or woe, Drown them in the goblet's flow. Yes! dash them in this brimming cup; Dash them in, and drink them up. Drink, drink, deeply drink, Never ...
— Alroy - The Prince Of The Captivity • Benjamin Disraeli

... the world the splendours break Of morning light and noontide glow, And when the broad red sun sinks low, And in the wave long shadows shake, Youths, maidens, glad with song and wile, Glide and are gone, and leave with me Only the dawn beyond yon isle, Only the sunlight ...
— Reviews • Oscar Wilde

... was worth I circulated a covert recommendation of this wile, which was acknowledged with sundry nods and inaudible assurances—the latter, so far as Jill was concerned, too readily given ...
— Jonah and Co. • Dornford Yates

... Paris ventured: so said he,— Had known the Sirens' song, and Circe's wile; And in a cove of that Hesperian sea Had found a maiden on a lonely isle; A sacrifice, if so men might beguile The wrath of some beast-god they worshipp'd there, But Paris, 'twixt the sea and strait defile, Had slain the beast, and ...
— Helen of Troy • Andrew Lang

... all the while in secret pining 'Mid youth's gay pride and first perfume ... She fades! To her it is not given Long o'er life's paths in joy to roam, Or long to make an earthly heaven In the calm precincts of her home; Our daily converse to enlighten With playful sense, with charming wile, The sufferer's woe-worn brow to brighten With the reflection of her smile. Now that black thoughts around me darken, I veil my grief with steady will, To her sweet voice I haste to hearken,— To hearken: and to gaze my fill. I gaze, I hearken yet, and never Shall voice or ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 58, Number 358, August 1845 • Various

... owd man wi' tott'ring gait, Wi' body bent, and snowy pate, Aw met one day;— An' daan o' th' rooad side grassy banks He sat to rest his weary shanks; An' aw, to wile away my time, O'th' neighbouring hillock did recline, An' ...
— Yorkshire Ditties, Second Series - To which is added The Cream of Wit and Humour - from his Popular Writings • John Hartley

... cathedral's crown on High Street. It brought to him again a vision of the Midlothian slopes, but it reminded Bobby that it was dinner-time. He told Auld Jock so by running to the door and back and begging him, by every pretty wile at his command, to go. The old man got to his feet and then fell back, pale and shaken, his heart hammering again. Bobby ate the bun soberly and then sat up against Auld Jock's feet, that dangled helplessly from the bed. The bells died away from ...
— Greyfriars Bobby • Eleanor Atkinson

... that this ship was wont to go to the Land of the Saracens for cheaping. So the mariners drew thither where was the tun, and did so much, what by wile, what by force, that they gat the tun on to their ship. And when the tun was laid on their ship, they looked much thereon, and much marvelled what it might be; and so much, that they beheld how one of ...
— Old French Romances • William Morris

... favour'd haunts to name? Whether at Paris you prepare The supper and the chat to share, While fix'd in artificial row, Laughter displays its teeth of snow: Grimace with raillery rejoices, And song of many mingled voices, Till young coquetry's artful wile Some foreign novice shall beguile, Who home return'd, still prates of ...
— Observations and Reflections Made in the Course of a Journey through France, Italy, and Germany, Vol. I • Hester Lynch Piozzi

... mortal needed that council, surely he did; But the wile has now succeeded—he wanders from his path; The cloud its lightning sendeth, and its bolt the stout oak rendeth, And the arbutus back bendeth in the whirlwind, as a lath! Now and then the moon looks out, but, alas! its pale face hath ...
— Poems • Denis Florence MacCarthy

... and beauty's smile That lures with soft, resistless wile? 'Tis thrilling hope! 'tis rapturous fear 'Tis heaven upon this mortal sphere; When at her feet we bend the knee, And own the glance of kindred ecstasy For ever on life's checkered way, 'Tis love that ...
— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller

... steps to enjoy the breeze. He presently drew a roll of paper from under his waist-belt, and in a short time was engrossed with his study. The women seeing this conduct, exerted themselves in every possible way of wile to attract his attention and to distract his soul. They succeeded only so far as to make him roll his head with a smile, and to remember that such is always the custom of man's bane; after which he turned over a fresh page of manuscript. And although he presently began to wonder ...
— Vikram and the Vampire • Sir Richard F. Burton

... dat ole broken pot we used, ter tell 'bout de war. But warn't ole Miss hoppin' wen she foun' out you war goin' to de war! I thought she'd go almos' wile. Now, own up, Robby, didn't you feel kine ob mean to go off widout eben biddin' her good bye? An' I ralely think ole Miss war fon' ob yer. Now, own up, honey, didn't yer feel a little down in de ...
— Iola Leroy - Shadows Uplifted • Frances E.W. Harper

... these things I ought to make a difference between my father and all other men; and that therefore, though I did disuse these tokens of respect to others, yet I ought still to use them towards him, as he was my father. And so far did this wile of his prevail upon me, through a fear lest I should do amiss in withdrawing any sort of respect or honour from my father which was due unto him, that being thereby beguiled, I continued for a while to demean ...
— The History of Thomas Ellwood Written by Himself • Thomas Ellwood

... such as smile On these neglected songs, Nor deem that flattery's needless wile My opening bosom wrongs; For who would trample, at my side, A few ...
— The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Complete • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

... reflected, why not? Is it not the only way a woman can do when in conflict with the Other Sex, to meet Wile with Gile? In other words, to use her intellagence against brute ...
— Bab: A Sub-Deb • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... uneasily. A tragic look grew in his handsome face; his face that was a mirror of all passing emotions; his face that had been able to express love and romance, devotion and tenderness, to wile a bird from off a tree or love from the heart of any woman. And even though Zara Shulski knew of just how little value was anything he said or did yet his astonishing charm always softened her irritation toward his fecklessness. So she ...
— The Reason Why • Elinor Glyn

... when't was done, we didn't count it dear. Why, law an' order, honor, civil right, Ef they ain't wuth it, wut is wuth a fight? I'm older 'n you: the plough, the axe, the mill, All kinds o' labor an' all kinds o' skill, Would be a rabbit in a wile-cat's claw, Ef't warn't for thet slow critter, 'stablished law; Onsettle thet, an' all the world goes whiz, A screw is loose in everythin' there is: Good buttresses once settled, don't you fret An' stir 'em: take a bridge's word for thet! Young folks are smart, but all ain't good ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 52, February, 1862 • Various

... in order to chive the game from his strength. This object being accomplished, afforded another severe chase of several miles, in a direction almost circular, during which the poor animal tried ever wile to get rid of his persecutors. He crossed and traversed all such dusty paths as were likely to retain the least scent of his footsteps; he laid himself close to the ground, drawing his feet under his belly, ...
— Waverley, Or 'Tis Sixty Years Hence, Complete • Sir Walter Scott

... Lammle was proceeding with every reassuring wile, when the head of that young lady suddenly went back against the wall again and ...
— Our Mutual Friend • Charles Dickens

... him a sense of fear. He never knew where she next would be, whither she would lead him, having herself instant access to all ranks and classes, to every abode of men. Sometimes at night he dreamt that she was 'the wile-weaving Daughter of high Zeus' in person, bent on tormenting him for his sins against her beauty in his art—the implacable Aphrodite herself indeed. He knew that he loved the masquerading creature wherever ...
— The Well-Beloved • Thomas Hardy

... leave Queen Mab awhile (Through many a gate, o'er many a stile, That now had gotten by this wile), Her dear Pigwiggen kissing; And tell how Oberon doth fare, Who grew as mad as any hare When he had sought each place with care And ...
— The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-night's Dream' • Compiled by Frank Sidgwick

... from the priest. He hastily sprang up and then flung himself down again. Temptation had just assailed him afresh. Into what paths were his recollections leading him? Did he not know, only too well, that Satan avails himself of every wile to insinuate his serpent-head into the soul, even when it is absorbed in self-examination? No! no! he had no excuse. His illness had in no wise authorised him to sin. He should have set strict guard upon himself, and have sought God anew ...
— Abbe Mouret's Transgression - La Faute De L'abbe Mouret • Emile Zola

... hard fighting. Through storm and peril, through darkness and sorrow, through the temptation of pleasure and the bewilderment of riches, I have never parted from it. Gold could not buy it; passion could not force it; nor man nor woman could wile or win it away. Glad or sorry, well or wounded, at home or in exile, I have given my life to keep the jewel. This is the meaning of ...
— The Unknown Quantity - A Book of Romance and Some Half-Told Tales • Henry van Dyke

... cough, the very wave of our hands; the only secret is, not all of us have always skill to see it. Here, however, I feel pretty sure. The curls of the g's and the tails of the y's—how full they are of wile, of low, underhand trickery!" ...
— Hilda Wade - A Woman With Tenacity Of Purpose • Grant Allen

... their use, it is certainly on board ship. Soaked with salt water or rain, it matters not; they most assuredly help to wile away many an hour, and even the usually non-novel reader is not ashamed to seize the tell-tale yellow-covered volume, and lose himself ...
— A Girl's Ride in Iceland • Ethel Brilliana Alec-Tweedie

... Highlands, or to the table-lands that underlie the Kaatskills—your welcome you value none the less that you see volumes of old numbers in the book-case, and the number of the month already laid on the table in the hall; and you think of the hot noons they will help to wile away, after the morning's sport, and before the evening drive. In homes like these, I have usually found Blackwood a favourite with the fairer portion of American society. You shall find it lurking amongst worsteds and flower-patterns, and very often preferred ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 62, No. 384, October 1847 • Various

... damsel fain Would wile him back,—she called in vain. The truant gamboll'd farther: One follow'd for the maiden's sake, A pilgrim in an Angel's wake— A ...
— London Lyrics • Frederick Locker

... chair-warmers in clubs; hastening business men appreciative of the daily assurance that stability is the primal and final blessing, discontent the cardinal sin, the extant system perfect and holy, and any change a wile of the forces of destruction—as if the human race had evoluted by the power of standing still! For the man in the street they held no message. No; nor for the woman in the home. Banneker thought of young Smith of the yacht and the coming millions, with a newspaper waiting to drop into his ...
— Success - A Novel • Samuel Hopkins Adams

... respected; if an error has been committed, the best way is, if possible, to find out that it was no error after all, or at least to treat it as such. In no point does ancient comedy stand further apart from modern ideas than in its view of married life; the wile is invariably the dull legal partner, love for whom is hardly thought of, while the sentiment of love (if indeed it be worthy of the name) is reserved for the Bacchis and Thais, who, in the most popular plays turn out to be Attic ...
— A History of Roman Literature - From the Earliest Period to the Death of Marcus Aurelius • Charles Thomas Cruttwell



Words linked to "Wile" :   dupery, chicanery, dissimulation, humbug, jugglery, trickery, put-on, deceit



Copyright © 2024 Dictionary One.com