wile
noun
[ wʌɪl ]
• devious or cunning stratagems employed in manipulating or persuading someone to do what one wants.
• "she didn't employ any feminine wiles to capture his attention"
Similar:
tricks,
ruses,
ploys,
schemes,
dodges,
manoeuvres,
gambits,
subterfuges,
cunning stratagems,
artifices,
devices,
contrivances,
guile,
artfulness,
art,
cunning,
craftiness,
wile
verb
• lure; entice.
• "she could be neither driven nor wiled into the parish kirk"
• another way of saying while something away (see while).
• "the gang had played monopoly as they wiled away the hours"
Origin:
Middle English: perhaps from an Old Norse word related to vél ‘craft’.
wile
adjective
• very bad; terrible.
• "he was wile when he was young"
wile
adverb
• very; extremely.
• "this old boy was wile pleased"
Origin:
late 19th century: representing a pronunciation of wild, probably influenced by earlier Scots use of wile as an alteration of vile.
