adv. Obs. Forms: see THERE and WHILE. [ME. þer hwile, analysis not certain, but app. repr. an OE. (on)þǽre hwíle ‘in that time,’ and thus, practically = the more usual the while, OE. þá hwile.
þer hwile had evidently come to be apprehended as a whole, and taken as an adv. before 1259, when it appears with advb. genitive -es, -s: see next. Cf. the while (OE.), the whiles c. 1300, and the later while, whiles, advbs., both c. 1300.]
a. During the time that; whilst; so long as. b. During that time; the while; meanwhile.
c. 1220. Bestiary (in O. E. Misc.), 784. Ne dar he stiren, ne noman deren, Ðer wile he laȝe and luue beren.
1340. Ayenb., 213. Þer huile þet ich me solaci an playe, iche ne þenche none manne kuead.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 157. Many was þe bald berne at banned þar quile Þat euer he dured þat day.
c. 1430. Life St. Kath., Cont. (1884), 3. How þe Emperour … ther whyle sent pryue lettres.
1575. Q. Eliz., in Harington’s Nugæ Ant. (ed. Park, 1804), I. 126. Their-while I prepair my selffe to welcome deathe.
1617. Hieron, Wks., II. 66. What becommeth of the Spirit of God therewhile? Is it lost?
