awhile
adv/əˈwaɪl/ · /əˈʍaɪl/
Etymology From Old English āne (“(for) a”) hwīle (“while”).
1
For some time; for a short time.
- Sit with me awhile.
- Take two cupfuls of rolled oats, put in bread pan, turn on four cupfuls of boiling water, stir for awhile.1911, Rufus Estes, Good Things to Eat, as Suggested by Rufus, page 83:
3 more examples
- Engine No. 18 went off into a shed to rest awhile, and No. 7, a precisely similar one, backed on to the train in her place.1944 May and June, “When the Circle was Steam Operated”, in Railway Magazine, page 137:
- The Negroes, having waited for the white people to go upstairs, began to come in. “Whoa now, just a minute,” said a club member, holding up his walking stick. “Just don’t start up them there stairs yet awhile.”1960 July 11, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC:
- I'll slip beneath these sheets and shiver here awhile / I find this happening more frequently these days1979, The Boomtown Rats, “Wind Chill Factor (Minus Zero)”, in The Fine Art of Surfacing:
2
US In the meantime; during an implicit ongoing process.
South-central Pennsylvania
- Can I get you a drink awhile?
- Synonyms
- for a minute, momentarily, for the moment, meanwhile, meanwhilst, the while
- Related terms
- while