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Wile   /waɪl/   Listen
Wile

noun
1.
The use of tricks to deceive someone (usually to extract money from them).  Synonyms: chicane, chicanery, guile, shenanigan, trickery.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Wile" Quotes from Famous Books



... when you are pleased I catch the hint Of a purr in your throat and face. Then I wonder if you are dreaming, too, Of temples along the Nile, Where you yowled and howled, and loved and prowled, With many a sensuous wile, And borrowed the grace you own today From that other life in the far-away; And if such ...
— Bohemian San Francisco - Its restaurants and their most famous recipes—The elegant art of dining. • Clarence E. Edwords

... and Kerry 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, ...
— Sprays of Shamrock • Clinton Scollard

... 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 o' ...
— The Proverbs of Scotland • Alexander Hislop

... from her intellectual dilemma by a simple and purely feminine wile—she refused to believe that he ...
— Boy Woodburn - A Story of the Sussex Downs • Alfred Ollivant

... over the hunting grounds of his fathers. Then a fierce determination took possession of his savage heart. For years he matured his plans, and watched the favorable moment to crush every living stranger at a blow. He took all his people into counsel, and such was their fidelity, and so deep the wile of the Indian chief, that, during four years of preparation, no warning reached the intended victims. To the last fatal moment, a studied semblance of cordial friendship was observed; some Englishmen, who had lost their way in the woods were kindly and carefully ...
— The Conquest of Canada (Vol. 1 of 2) • George Warburton

... numerous publications that seem to me adapted for convincing parents that their children need instruction, I commonly mention the following: Lowry's "False Modesty" and "Teaching Sex Hygiene," Howard's "Start your Child Right," Wile's "Sex Education," Galloway's "Biology of Sex," March's "Towards Racial Health," Lyttleton's "Training of the Young in Laws of Sex," and pamphlets by Dr. Prince Morrow. See ...
— Sex-education - A series of lectures concerning knowledge of sex in its - relation to human life • Maurice Alpheus Bigelow

... then started homeward, feeling his importance as a married man, and chuckling over the idea of the astonishment and dismay of the rats and mice when he should set his wife after them, and thereby deprive them of their daily rations. But while musing thus, he discovers his wile shows signs of ...
— Punchinello, Volume 2, No. 37, December 10, 1870 • Various

... am banned from Paris and subject to the eye of the police? Where can I go, what can I do? You know my capabilities. You have seen Corentin, that storehouse of treachery and wile, turn ghastly pale before me, and doing justice to my powers.—That man has bereft me of everything; for it was he, and he alone, who overthrew the edifice of Lucien's fortunes, by what means and in whose interest ...
— Scenes from a Courtesan's Life • Honore de Balzac

... waking smile, And sweet the old man's rest - But middle age by no fond wile, No soothing ...
— The Christian Year • Rev. John Keble

... of moly, If thou touch at Circe's isle,— Hermes' moly, growing solely To undo enchanter's wile. When she proffers thee her chalice,— Wine and spices mixed with malice,— When she smites thee with her staff To transform thee, do thou laugh! Safe thou art if thou but bear The least leaf of moly rare. Close it grows ...
— Modern Prose And Poetry; For Secondary Schools - Edited With Notes, Study Helps, And Reading Lists • Various

... dabbling his bare feet, small and delicately formed, in the translucent green of a tide abandoned pool. But oftener in a soft dusky wind, he might have been heard uttering them gently and coaxingly, as if he would wile from the evening zephyr the secret of his birth—which surely mother Nature must know. The confinement of such a man would have been in the highest degree cruel, and must speedily have ended in death. Even Malcolm did ...
— Malcolm • George MacDonald

... meek and unaffected grace, 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 ready zeal, each honest rustic ran; E'en 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 were given, But all his serious thoughts had rest in heaven. As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, ...
— The Canadian Elocutionist • Anna Kelsey Howard

... and there the small bright head, A light of healing, glanced about the couch, Or through the parted silks the tender face Peeped, shining in upon the wounded man With blush and smile, a medicine in themselves To wile the length from languorous hours, and draw The sting from pain; nor seemed it strange that soon He rose up whole, and those fair charities Joined at her side; nor stranger seemed that hears So gentle, so employed, should ...
— The Princess • Alfred Lord Tennyson

... barrl was too much for the assembelled multertude of the grate unwashed, and ther was quietness in the Hall, wile vishuns of wiskey baths, free lunch stands, and clene paper collars, past befor thir eyes. Then ther was a loud cheir, and Joe Gilley wos nommernated by acclamashun. The rest of the ticket was put ...
— The Bad Boy At Home - And His Experiences In Trying To Become An Editor - 1885 • Walter T. Gray

... the lady, Willy, let her letter wait, You'll forget your troubles when you get it straight, The world is full of women, and the women full of wile; Come along with me, Willy, we can make ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume X (of X) • Various

... vision yet: thine aged sire Shaming his hoary locks with treacherous wile! And dost thou now doubt Truth to be a liar? And wilt thou die, that hast ...
— Phantasmagoria and Other Poems • Lewis Carroll

... in love that men and women differ most vitally. Now Nature, being extremely wise, gives the man in love the wisdom of the serpent and the wile of the dove (which is a most alluring bird in its love-making). A man in love brings to it all his intelligence. And men ...
— 'Oh, Well, You Know How Women Are!' AND 'Isn't That Just Like a Man!' • Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb

... 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 ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 62, No. 384, October 1847 • Various

... not possible to deceive or go beyond the will of Zeus; for not even the son of Iapetus, kindly Prometheus, escaped his heavy anger, but of necessity strong bands confined him, although he knew many a wile. ...
— Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns, and Homerica • Homer and Hesiod

... e'en, and little I dreamed I'd ever be tellin' ye this, an auld, lanely, rudas wife! Weel, Mr. Erchie, there was a lad cam' courtin' me, as was but naetural. Mony had come before, and I would nane o' them. But this yin had a tongue to wile the birds frae the lift and the bees frae the foxglove bells. Deary me, but it's lang syne. Folk have dee'd sinsyne and been buried, and are forgotten, and bairns been born and got merrit and got bairns o' their ain. Sinsyne woods have been ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. XIX (of 25) - The Ebb-Tide; Weir of Hermiston • Robert Louis Stevenson

... thrice damned by that devil's wile, - So sometimes burns in my weary brain The thought that you loved me all ...
— Pike County Ballads and Other Poems • John Hay

... ruined shrines, And her hull is the drift of the deep sea floor, Though shaped of Pelion's tallest pines. You may seek her crew in every isle, Fair in the foam of Aegean seas, But out of their sleep no charm can wile Jason and ...
— Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul • Various

... in which the whole Catholic system appeared to Laura's strained imagination as one vast chasse—an assemblage of hunters and their toils—against which the poor human spirit that was their quarry must somehow protect itself, with every possible wile or violence. ...
— Helbeck of Bannisdale, Vol. II • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... 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 ...
— Story of the War in South Africa - 1899-1900 • Alfred T. Mahan

... is at the very acme of brilliancy. For this feeling he can hardly be blamed, for the most important condition of successful work by a male choir is probably permanency of membership; and the leader must exercise every wile to keep the boys in, once they have become useful members of the organization. But in justice to the boy's future, he ought probably in most cases to be dismissed from the choir when his voice begins ...
— Essentials in Conducting • Karl Wilson Gehrkens

... head on 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! ...
— With Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga • W. Bert Foster

... sprung new forms around, As each advanced the most profound. She held to all a winning smile; How many took her heedful wile. ...
— A Leaf from the Old Forest • J. D. Cossar

... preached the word of salvation to civilized and savage more than forty years, and am not likely to be led astray by a glimpse of a fair face tempting me hellward. I speak you truth, as delivered of God, so surely as were the tablets of the law delivered unto Moses, when I say that she who, by some wile of the Devil, rules this tribe and holds our lives in her hands, is an incarnate fiend, who will yet mock our agony whenever her own accursed lust shall be satisfied. 'T is not only that she jeered at me with cruel smiles, and affronted a preacher of the Word ...
— Prisoners of Chance - The Story of What Befell Geoffrey Benteen, Borderman, - through His Love for a Lady of France • Randall Parrish

... isle; So perish error! and wide over all Let reason, truth, religion ever smile: And let not man, vain, impious man defile The spark heaven lighted in the human breast; Let no enthusiastic rage, no sophist's wile Lull the poor victim into careless rest, Since the pure gospel page can teach him to ...
— The Mirror Of Literature, Amusement, And Instruction, No. 391 - Vol. 14, No. 391, Saturday, September 26, 1829 • Various

... In order to wile away time, our merchant, who was wonderfully social, scraped acquaintance with some of his fellow-prisoners. "Vat be you in prishon for?" said he to a stout respectable-looking man who seemed in a ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 19, No. - 537, March 10, 1832 • Various

... like blaises and I cant get out since I came heer Ive had bully times and I hope Ill keep sik a good wile our doctur lets me eat donuts but sez I musnt play out in the rain wen its rainin farther told me Id beter rite to sum of my scholmaids and giv me this hole sheet of paper maibe Id get a leter rote before dinner but I cant tell you mutch ...
— Punchinello, Vol. II. No. 38, Saturday, December 17, 1870. • Various

... 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, Lady, to dream ...
— Among the Millet and Other Poems • Archibald Lampman

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

... valour was there blent Discretion. Thou thy thoughts are deathward set, Who dar'st defy me to the battle, me, A mightier far than thou! Thou canst not say That friendship of our fathers thee shall screen; Nor me thy gifts shall wile to let thee pass Scatheless from war, as once did Tydeus' son. Though thou didst 'scape his fury, will not I Suffer thee to return alive from war. Ha, in thy many helpers dost thou trust Who with thee, like so ...
— The Fall of Troy • Smyrnaeus Quintus

... untir'd I strove To serve beneath the yoke of love. Whene'er I mark'd a fearful look, When pride, or when resentment, spoke, I bent the tenor of my strain, And trembled lest it were in vain. By many an undiscover'd wile I brought the pallid lip to smile, Clear'd the maz'd thought for ampler scope, Sustain'd the flagging wings of hope; And threw a mantle over care Such as the blooming Graces wear! I made the friend resist his pride, Scarce aiming what he felt to hide From other eyes, his own implor'd ...
— The Lay of Marie • Matilda Betham

... name. Say, 'A Douglas was never faithless to his trust, and I am a Douglas.' Say this, my dearest son, and it is all I ask thee to say to clear thy name, even under, such a foul charge. Say it was but the wile of these unhappy women, and this false boy, which plotted an escape so fatal to Scotland—so destructive to thy ...
— The Abbot • Sir Walter Scott

... than ever now, to answer the inquiries and listen to the sad forebodings of the neighbors, who came to offer help and sympathy; for all loved little Button-Rose, and grieved to think of any blight falling on the pretty blossom. To wile away the long hours, Cicely fell to dusting the empty rooms, setting closets and drawers to rights, and keeping all fresh and clean, to the great relief of the old cousins, who felt that everything would go to destruction in their absence. She read and sewed now, having ...
— A Garland for Girls • Louisa May Alcott

... are the first To learn how Disappointment's blight Strips life of its illusive light; How dreams the heart has dearest held Are ever first to be dispelled; How hope, and power, and love, and fame, Are each an idly sounding name, A phantom, a deceit, a wile, That woos and dazzles to beguile. But time had not yet tutored him, The youth of hardy heart and limb, Who quickly drew his courser's bit; For though too haughty to submit, In strife for mastery ...
— Mazelli, and Other Poems • George W. Sands

... from the A. D. T. boys up to the curbstone brokers, adored Miss Merriam. When they paid their checks they wooed her with every wile known to Cupid's art. Between the meshes of the brass railing went smiles, winks, compliments, tender vows, invitations to dinner, sighs, languishing looks and merry banter that was wafted pointedly back by the ...
— Strictly Business • O. Henry

... "you need not begin to speak your dark sentences again to enchant me by some devilish wile or other. My heart is rent, you must speak, or"—— "Stop," interrupted she, "no threats—am I not your faithful nurse, who tended you?"—— Without waiting to hear what the old woman had got further to say, he picked himself up and ran away swiftly. From a distance he shouted to ...
— Weird Tales, Vol. II. • E. T. A. Hoffmann

... It was the first service I ever did for him." It may have been an innocent wile to anchor him fast there and helpless. . . . At any rate she knelt, and drew off his shoes and carried them to a little distance. "Next, my lord shall eat," she said; and having rinsed her hands in the stream and spread them a moment to ...
— Lady Good-for-Nothing • A. T. Quiller-Couch

... go to the zaguan. See whether he be asleep. Go up boldly. If asleep, well; if not enter into conversation with him. Get him to open the little door and let you out. Wile him upon the street, and by some means keep him there. I shall lead ...
— The White Chief - A Legend of Northern Mexico • Mayne Reid

... affect us in this present life, and I make all allowance, too, for the pressure of imperative duties and distracting cares which interfere with our communion, though, if we were as strong as we might be, they would not wile us away from, but drive us to, our Father in heaven. But when all such allowances have been made, I come back to my text as the explanation of interrupted communion. The two are not agreed; and that is why they are not walking together. ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Minor Prophets. St Matthew Chapters I to VIII • Alexander Maclaren

... Helladius loved me or loved me not. The most perfect sympathy existed between us: we seemed one heart and one soul: and yet, and yet, Helladius never gave the slightest indication of the sentiments which a young man might be supposed to entertain for a young girl. Vainly did I try every innocent wile that a modest maiden may permit herself: he was ever the friend, never the lover. At length, after long pining between despairing fondness and wounded pride, I myself turned away, and listened to one who left me in no doubt of the sincerity ...
— The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales • Richard Garnett

... woman who lived on what she got by wile from her relatives and neighbors. Her husband's brother lived alone with his only son, in a house near hers, and when the son brought home a wife the old woman went to call on the bride. During the call ...
— Childhood's Favorites and Fairy Stories - The Young Folks Treasury, Volume 1 • Various

... whereof Sir Gawain knew naught, and the lord of the castle had sent afore the strongest and most valiant of his folk, to waylay Sir Gawain, and to take his life, A man's heart might well fail him for doubt, and great fear, did he come in such a pass, and know no wile whereby he might escape. ...
— The Romance of Morien • Jessie L. Weston

... has won his spurs, or laurels, or belt, or whatever you choose to call it, in many a hard fought and well contested tussle for the championship of his little world; he is 'up to every dodge,' and knows every feint and guard, every wile and tactic of the wrestling ground. It is generally in some shady grove, secluded and cool; here of an evening when the labours of the day are over, the most stalwart sons of the hamlet meet, to test each others skill and endurance in a friendly shake. The old man ...
— Sport and Work on the Nepaul Frontier - Twelve Years Sporting Reminiscences of an Indigo Planter • James Inglis

... 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 ...
— The Voyageur and Other Poems • William Henry Drummond

... one grip and a shake, was dead; while the excited pack returned to watch and jump at the wire cages until another doomed prisoner was tossed forth to them. Gentlemen on their way for a walk were thus enabled to wile away a few minutes at the noble sport, and indulge themselves and their dogs with a little healthy excitement; while the boating costume of other gentlemen shewed that they had for a while left aquatic pursuits, and had strolled up from the river to indulge in ...
— The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green • Cuthbert Bede

... the law which bade its vot'ries leave At human woes with human hearts to grieve; Stern was the law, which at the winning wile Of frank and harmless mirth forbade to smile; But sterner still, when high the iron-rod Of tyrant power she shook, and call'd that power ...
— Ivanhoe - A Romance • Walter Scott

... opens the way for a soul to emerge from the fog of the commonplace, the marsh of platitude, the Sahara of lies, into the colour and air of life. The better things of humanity often need the sun of friendship to wile them out. A girl, well-bred, tolerably clever, and with some genius of accommodation, will appear to a man possessed of a hundred faculties of which she knows nothing; but his belief will help to rouse them in her. A young man will see an angel ...
— What's Mine's Mine • George MacDonald

... opeless, and wundring how on airth I shood ever get up again. But my trusty frend and guide was soon at my side, as the Poet says, but all his united force, with that of too boys who came to his assistance, and larfed all the wile, as rude boys will, coud not get me on my feet agen 'till my too skates was taken off, and I agen found myself on terror fermer on my friend's chair. It took me longer to recover myself than I shood have thort posserbel, ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 100., Jan. 31, 1891 • Various

... nightingale, all is one to the fowler; and, Master Varney, you can sound the quail-pipe most daintily to wile wantons into his nets. I desire no such devil's preferment for Janet as you have brought many a poor maiden to. Dost thou laugh? I will keep one limb of my family, at least, from Satan's clutches, that thou mayest rely on. She ...
— Kenilworth • Sir Walter Scott

... in no longer, and began excitedly, "De question am weder de wile sinner's gwine ter return, or wants ter return, or's got any return in 'im. Elder, I feels fer Mis Buggone an' her family, but dis yere ting's gwine on long anuff. We'se been forbearin' an' long-sufferin' till dere's a scan'el in de church. I'se tried wid all my might 'er keep de people awake an' ...
— The Earth Trembled • E.P. Roe

... invention, stratagem, blind, cunning, fraud, machination, subterfuge, cheat, device, guile, maneuver, trick, contrivance, dodge, imposture, ruse, wile. ...
— English Synonyms and Antonyms - With Notes on the Correct Use of Prepositions • James Champlin Fernald

... while the lovely babe, As if by angels lent, With soft caress and soothing wile Invok'd a widow'd mother's smile, Then to ...
— Man of Uz, and Other Poems • Lydia Howard Sigourney

... the platform outside the House, and he lacked that terrific energy which distinguished his principal colleague. But he was, nevertheless, a first-rate partner. His steady, cold brain would carry into effect with precision an intricate, delicate, and bold plan of operations. He had hardihood. Every wile in public life was known to him. He had strong will-power. And in sheer brain of what may be called the purely intellectual type he was miles ahead, not only of Lloyd George, but of all the other politicians of the day. I ...
— Lloyd George - The Man and His Story • Frank Dilnot

... and said: "You pledged The baby, and I came; But if in three days you can learn By foul or fair my name— By foul or fair, by wile or snare, You can its syllables declare, Then is the child yours—only then— And me ...
— On the Tree Top • Clara Doty Bates

... she was. His question was simply a lingering wile to detain her and extract for another moment that dazzling essence of light he drew from her presence, to continue his enormous satisfaction in her features, which were like kisses and, he thought, like the features of a girl ...
— Tales of the Jazz Age • F. Scott Fitzgerald

... selfishness of the will turn on itself, and obtain by flattery what it cannot seize by open force. Democracy becomes the latest trick of tyranny: "womanliness" becomes the latest wile of prostitution. ...
— A Treatise on Parents and Children • George Bernard Shaw

... you my 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

... 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

... the two friends' talk; how that of Protheus gives a better impression of himself than is true, that of Valentine, a worse. Show the consistency in wile of Protheus in his conduct toward the Duke, Thurio, Silvia, and Julia. Why does it succeed? Wherein is ...
— Shakespeare Study Programs; The Comedies • Charlotte Porter and Helen A. Clarke

... moon is hidden their mother comes to them with treacherous wile, and suggests that they should go off on a holiday again to seek the moon—the moon that for a moment seems captured by the pearl-fishers of the sky. And so off they go merrily, but, alas! no moon appears; and presently they are aware of unwieldy bumping presences upon the ...
— Prose Fancies (Second Series) • Richard Le Gallienne

... 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, and was, for ten years, a member of Parliament. His fame as an author rests chiefly ...
— McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader • William Holmes McGuffey

... you pardoner or cheat, Or cogger keen, or mumper shy, You'll burn your fingers at the feat, And howl like other folks that fry. All evil folks that love a lie! And where goes gain that greed amasses, By wile, and trick, and thievery? 'Tis all to taverns ...
— Ballads in Blue China and Verses and Translations • Andrew Lang

... of her husband, met the party at the lower gate, with a thousand welcomes. After the ceremony of introduction had been gone through, much abridged by the ease and excellent breeding of Lady Emily, she apologized for having used a little art to wile them back to a place which might awaken some painful reflections—'But as it was to change masters, we were ...
— Waverley • Sir Walter Scott

... Unshriven be her sins, Nor let her mercy find what time she comes to die! So full of wile she is, that with a single thread Of spider's silk she'd curb ...
— The Book Of The Thousand Nights And One Night, Volume I • Anonymous

... to catch his shy bird, and the oftener she escaped the more determined he was to ensnare her. When every other wile had been tried in vain, he got Archie to ...
— Eight Cousins • Louisa M. Alcott

... die, Put might in him to say thereby Which head should lose its crown, and lie Stricken, though loth he were to know That either life should wane and fail; Yet most might Arthur's love avail, And still with subtly tempered tale His wile held ...
— The Tale of Balen • Algernon Charles Swinburne

... joy was shot from eye to eye, I 've heard a sadly-stifled sigh; And, 'mid the garlands rich and fair, I 've seen a cheek, which once could vie In beauty with the fairest there, Grown deadly pale, although a smile Was worn above to cloak despair. Poor maid! it was a hapless wile Of long-conceal'd and hopeless love To hide a heart, which broke the while With pangs ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume IV. - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various

... but, when he sank exhausted upon his bed of oak leaves, the light which had kindled in Reuben's eye was quenched. He felt as if it were both sin and folly to think of happiness at such a moment. His companion watched his changing countenance, and sought with generous art to wile him to his ...
— Mosses from an Old Manse and Other Stories • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... 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 bound ...
— Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth • Lucy Aikin

... I grant, your art was too fine for that; you shunned me that I might seek you to ask why. In interviews that seemed to come by chance, you tried every wile a woman owns, and they are many. You wooed me as such as you alone can woo the hearts they know are hardest to be won. You made your society a refreshment in this climate of the passions; you hid ...
— Moods • Louisa May Alcott

... whereupon, seeing no likelihood of an end to their stramash, I turned mysel' round, and, taking the door on my back, left them, and the same night came off on the Fly to Edinburgh. Since syne they have been trying every grip and wile o' the law to punish me as they threatened; but the laws of England are a great protection to the people against arbitrary power; and the letter that I have got to-day frae the nabob, tells me that the commissioners ...
— The Provost • John Galt

... 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 mouf ...
— Iola Leroy - Shadows Uplifted • Frances E.W. Harper

... the methods 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

... level with the 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. ...
— Greyfriars Bobby • Eleanor Atkinson

... misgive me that you are right," said Philip. "Away from him. He seems an arch villain, though in his presence the feeling changes, for he hath a tongue to wile a ...
— The Knight of the Golden Melice - A Historical Romance • John Turvill Adams

... nearer to Lord Hardy, who scarcely looked at her, and did not manifest the slightest interest in her headache, or in her. Nothing which Daisy could do was of any avail to attract him to her, and she tried every wile and art upon him during the next few days, but to no purpose. At last, when she had been at the Ridge House a week, and she had an opportunity of seeing him alone, she said, in a half playful, half ...
— Bessie's Fortune - A Novel • Mary J. Holmes

... We implore thy powerful hand To undo the charmed band Of true virgin here distressed Through the force and through the wile Of unblessed enchanter vile. SABR. Shepherd, 't is my office best To help ensnared chastity. Brightest Lady, look on me. Thus I sprinkle on thy breast Drops that from my fountain pure I have kept of precious cure; Thrice upon thy finger's tip, Thrice upon thy rubied lip: Next this marble venomed ...
— L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, Comus, and Lycidas • John Milton

... Betwene these heathen men and ye followers of Christ their is all ye differenc betwene a slave and a servent of a kind Master. Eche bears the same burden; butt ye servent knows he will recieve just wages for his work, wile ye slave hopes for nothing, and so conkludes that to escape work is to be happy!' I could but aknowlege the wisdomm and pyety of this speche; yett whenn I see ye peopel going bye in their black rayment, I envy the young Gennerel his gloreous deth, and I wish I was laying ...
— Birds of Prey • M. E. Braddon

... a while: "Sir Guisebert, true it is that I long to see my people, and to look once more on my father's house, and the place where he was born and died. But how know I but this is some wile of Earl Geoffrey, for he hath not been abounding in ...
— Child Christopher • William Morris

... against his heart. Every wile known to beauty had been employed in a hundred sieges. But the Jack Snipe of eighteen was still the lonely Jack Snipe at twenty-three: his heart was sheathed in a love that harked back to a rough, picturesque development and was strong by virtue of ...
— The Rose in the Ring • George Barr McCutcheon

... a darling he is; from his babyhood every woman has adored him—the nurse maids were his slaves, and my old housekeeper and my maid are like two jealous cats as to who shall do things for him when he comes home. He has that queer quality which can wile a bird off a tree. I daresay I am ...
— The Price of Things • Elinor Glyn

... explanation will make the reader understand what it is you can do on the Estimates, and therefore bring home to your mind the wile of the Ministerial Whip. For his second reason for putting down the Estimates until after vacation is, that he knows there will be a very small attendance of members, and that thus he will be able to sneak through his Estimates more quickly than ...
— Sketches In The House (1893) • T. P. O'Connor

... seizes the basket of an ancient orange-woman, making good his title in a very satisfactory way, and tosses the glowing fruit indiscriminately among the troops, who give him back their best "Bully Boy!" with a "Tiger!" added. Happy little incidents on every side serve to wile away a half hour, then the "all a-shore!" is sounded, the final good-bye spoken, the plank hauled in, and away we sail. A pleasant journey via Amboy and Camden brings us to Philadelphia at the close of the day. There we find a bountiful repast awaiting us at the Soldiers' Home Saloon, ...
— Our campaign around Gettysburg • John Lockwood

... found himself in a maze of perplexity, as he stood for a long time in silence, studying the fair picture of femininity there offered to his gaze. In his breast, various emotions warred lustily. He was a-thrill with elation over the possibility of outwitting the foes who had used every wile and subterfuge of trickiness to ruin him. He was moved to a profound admiration for the intelligence that had originated and carried out a counter plot so instantly effective in his interests. But underlying these was a grievous hurt to his egotism. The pride of the male was wounded ...
— Making People Happy • Thompson Buchanan

... English lord's words were sweet, and he spoke in the soft Southern tongue, such as might wile a bird from the lift,[14] if the bird chanced to have little sense, and when he ceased I glanced at my lady in alarm, lest for a moment she ...
— Tales From Scottish Ballads • Elizabeth W. Grierson

... return to the resurrections we see around us in nature. Look at the death that falls upon the world in winter. And look how it revives when the sun draws near enough in the spring to wile the life in it once more out of its grave. See how the pale, meek snowdrops come up with their bowed heads, as if full of the memory of the fierce winds they encountered last spring, and yet ready in the strength of their weakness to encounter them again. Up comes the crocus, bringing ...
— The Seaboard Parish Vol. 2 • George MacDonald

... some net or woven wile; But since of singing she doth take such pleasure, Without or other art or other guile I seek to win her with a tuneful measure; Therefore in singing spend I all my leisure, To make by singing ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Second Series • John Addington Symonds

... conjunction of hostile planets, Ferdinand had recourse to his favourite policy of wile and stratagem. Turning against the Jews the very treaty Almamen had once sought to obtain in their favour, he caused it to be circulated, privately, that the Jews, anxious to purchase their peace with him, had promised to betray the Moorish towns, and Granada itself into ...
— Leila, Complete - The Siege of Granada • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... to see them smile, And uses every honest wile To mend then hearts, their cares beguile, With rhyming story, And lend them to then God the ...
— Cottage Poems • Patrick Bronte

... came 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 upon recovering from his ...
— Abbe Mouret's Transgression - La Faute De L'abbe Mouret • Emile Zola

... vulgar fists or weapons ever since the muzzle of Verty's rifle invaded his ruffles on the morning of his woes. He would have a revenge worthy of himself—certain, complete, and above all, quite safe. Mr. Jinks would wile the affections of Miss Redbud from him, fixing the said affections on himself; but that is not possible, since the young lady in question has gone home, and Apple Orchard is too far to walk. Still Mr. Jinks does not despair of doing something; and this something ...
— The Last of the Foresters • John Esten Cooke

... the finest steel tempered at Kendal or Redditch. No other fish leaps so desperately out of the water in its efforts to escape, or puts so many artful dodges into execution, forcing the angler with his arched rod and sensitive winch to meet wile with wile, and determination with a firmness of which gentleness is the warp and woof. While it lasts, and when the fish are in a sporting humour, there is nothing more exciting than sea-trout angling. Perhaps for briskness of sport one ...
— Lines in Pleasant Places - Being the Aftermath of an Old Angler • William Senior

... even a general servant; she was the soubrette, the confidential maid, the very echo of the young and haughty mistress, leagued with the worshipped creature against the wickedness and wile of a whole sex. Mrs. Tams had no illusions save the sublime illusion that her mistress was an angel and a martyr. Mrs. Tams had been married, and she had seen a daughter married. She was an authority on first quarrels and could and ...
— The Price of Love • Arnold Bennett

... 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, ...
— Alroy - The Prince Of The Captivity • Benjamin Disraeli

... spirit quenched within us, Stoops the strong manhood of our souls so low, That Mammon's lure or Party's wile can win ...
— The Complete Works of Whittier - The Standard Library Edition with a linked Index • John Greenleaf Whittier

... I learned to know you better, And you ceased to wile the victim at your feet, There was very little silk about the fetter, And 'twere flattery to say your sway was sweet: Nay, you made the light and airy shrine of beauty A centre for the most exacting duty, And the fealty of the family undoubting Met with flouting, As a tribute which ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 100., February 7, 1891 • Various

... God forgive her, She's akneelin' with the rest, She, thet ough' to ha' clung fer ever In her grand old eagle-nest; She thet ough' to stand so fearless Wile the wracks are round her hurled, Holdin' up a beacon peerless To the oppressed of ...
— The Biglow Papers • James Russell Lowell

... round the loins So slender of his shape, was Michael Scot, Practised in every slight of magic wile." ...
— A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume I (of II) • Augustus De Morgan

... she said. "Didn't I say to Master Neal last night that she was an early one? Eh, Miss Una, did you no take notice of the eyes of her? She'd wile the fishes out of the sea, or a bird off a bush, so she would, just by looking sweet at them. It's queer manners they have where she comes from. I'm thinking that silly gowk of a captain's no the first man she's beguiled. ...
— The Northern Iron - 1907 • George A. Birmingham

... 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

... a stem of moly, If thou touch at Circe's isle,— Hermes' moly, growing solely To undo enchanter's wile! When she proffers thee her chalice,— Wine and spices mixed with malice,— When she smites thee with her staff To transform thee, do thou laugh! Safe thou art if thou but bear The least leaf of moly rare. Close it grows beside her portal, ...
— Poems Every Child Should Know - The What-Every-Child-Should-Know-Library • Various

... by side over the snow, through the burnt lands that lie on the Peribonka's high bank above the fall. Lorenzo had used no wile to secure Maria's company, he simply invited her before them all, and now he told of his love, in the same straightforward ...
— Maria Chapdelaine - A Tale of the Lake St. John Country • Louis Hemon

... art can tell the insect tribe that every month doth bring, And with a curious wile we know to mock its gauzy wing; We know what breeze will bid the trout through the curling waters leap, And we can surely win him from shallow or from deep; For every cunning fish can we a cunning bait provide, In the sport that we court by ...
— Country Walks of a Naturalist with His Children • W. Houghton

... prestigiation|, prestidigitation; magic &c 992; conjuring, conjuration; hocus-pocus, escamoterie[obs3], jockeyship[obs3]; trickery, coggery|, chicanery; supercherie[obs3], cozenage[obs3], circumvention, ingannation|, collusion; treachery &c 940; practical joke. trick, cheat, wile, blind, feint, plant, bubble, fetch, catch, chicane, juggle, reach, hocus, bite; card sharping, stacked deck, loaded dice, quick shuffle, double dealing, dealing seconds, dealing from the bottom of the deck; artful dodge, swindle; tricks upon travelers; stratagem ...
— Roget's Thesaurus • Peter Mark Roget

... can stand away from Politics and Literature—for the two were always involved in those days, so that unless you approved a man's party you couldn't allow that he wrote tolerable verse—they can wile away a winter evening very pleasantly. Christopher North had an eye for character, a sense of humour, and knew and loved the country. He was country bred. He is at his best when he combines his loves, as he does in the person of the Shepherd. Keep the Shepherd off (a) girls, (b) nursing mothers, ...
— In a Green Shade - A Country Commentary • Maurice Hewlett

... specially cherished by American hackers and explained here for the benefit of our overseas brethren, comes from the Warner Brothers' series of "Roadrunner" cartoons. In these cartoons, the famished Wile E. Coyote was forever attempting to catch up with, trap, and eat the Roadrunner. His attempts usually involved one or more high-technology Rube Goldberg devices — rocket jetpacks, catapults, magnetic traps, ...
— The Jargon File, Version 4.0.0

... be prim when I tell you that we are going on a frolic," she began, after getting the old woman into an amiable mood by every winning wile she could devise. "I think you'll like it, and if it's found out I'll take the blame. There is some mystery about Paul's cousin, and I'm going ...
— The Mysterious Key And What It Opened • Louisa May Alcott

... had formed the habit of keeping 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. Ordinarily, he returned only in time for dinner, and rarely ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet

... came up into Jehu's chariot, and came to Samaria. And Jehu sought out for all Ahab's kindred, and slew them. And being desirous that none of the false prophets, nor the priests of Ahab's god, might escape punishment, he caught them deceitfully by this wile; for he gathered all the people together, and said that he would worship twice as many gods as Ahab worshipped, and desired that his priests, and prophets, and servants might be present, because he would offer costly ...
— The Antiquities of the Jews • Flavius Josephus

... Sir Hugh Cholmley, and other notabilities who have left their mark on the pages of Scarborough's history, might not, were they with us to-day, welcome the pierrot, the switchback, the restaurant, and other means by which pleasure-loving visitors wile away their hardly-earned holidays; but for my part the story of Scarborough's Mayor who was tossed in a blanket is far more entertaining than the songs of nigger minstrels or any of the ...
— Yorkshire Painted And Described • Gordon Home

... sordid; thus, while submitting, conquering, and tyrannizing over him, content with present worldly pleasure, unmindful of the past, the future, or the above. This may react to intersexual antagonism until man comes to hate woman as a witch, or, as in the days of celibacy, consider sex a wile of the devil. Along these lines even the stage is beginning to represent ...
— Youth: Its Education, Regimen, and Hygiene • G. Stanley Hall

... Aphrodite, Wile-weaving daughter of high Zeus, I pray thee, Tame not my soul with heavy woe, dread mistress, Nay, ...
— Woman under socialism • August Bebel

... gnawing fear and remorse. But it was only to be a last refuge of course. Helen withdrew to the dressing-room, laid herself on her bed, and began to compass how to meet and circumvent the curate, so as by an innocent cunning to wile from him on false pretences what spiritual balm she might so gain for the torn heart and conscience of her brother. There was no doubt it would be genuine, and the best to be had, seeing George Bascombe, who was honesty itself, judged the curate an honest man. But how was it to be done? ...
— Thomas Wingfold, Curate • George MacDonald

... the old man seriously, "a wile-cat's 'most de properest varmint going. Nebber eats not'ing but young pigs and birds and rabbits, and sich. Yankee folks likes chicken-meat, but 'tain't nigh ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 26, July 1880. • Various

... meek and unaffected grace, His looks adorned the venerable place; Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway, And fools, who came to scoff, remained to pray. 180 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; 185 Their welfare pleased him, and their cares distressed: To them his heart, his love, his griefs were given, But all his serious ...
— Selections from Five English Poets • Various

... smiled at their 'cute nicety, And thought,—all this is done but for a wile; They fancy that no man can them beguile: But, by my thrift, I'll dust their searching eye, For all the sleights in their philosophy. The more quaint knacks and guarded plans they make, The more corn will I steal when once I take: Instead of flour, I'll leave them ...
— Playful Poems • Henry Morley

... o' killing a cat than choking her wi' cream!" he was in the habit of saying. "The craw doesna bigg his nest wi' yae strae!" "It tak's mair than a score o' yowes to stock a muir!" "Bide a wile—God made a' ...
— Patsy • S. R. Crockett

... 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.

... and left me! For a long time I sat perfectly still, waiting till it should reappear, and fearful that the slightest motion, or even the flutter of my breath, might frighten it away. Thus have I often started from a pleasant dream, and then kept quiet in hopes to wile it back. Deep were my musings as to the race and attributes of that ethereal being. Had I created her? Was she the daughter of my fancy, akin to those strange shapes which peep under the lids of children's eyes? And did her beauty gladden me for that one moment and then die? Or was she a water-nymph ...
— Twice Told Tales • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... I think o' thy cheerfu' smile, Thy words sae free an' kindly, Thy pawkie e'e's bewitching wile, The unbidden tear will blind me. The rose's deepest blushing hue Thy cheek could eithly borrow, But ae kiss o' thy cherry mou' Was ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume II. - The Songs of Scotland of the past half century • Various

... was calumnious and false, and that all her actions had been done at the instigation of the Franciscan Pere Lactance, the director, Mignon, and the Carmelite brothers. Pere Lactance, not in the least taken aback, declared that her confession was a fresh wile of the devil to save her master Grandier. She then made an urgent appeal to the bishop and to M. de Laubardemont, asking to be sequestered and placed in charge of other priests than those who had destroyed her soul, by making her bear false witness against ...
— CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE - URBAIN GRANDIER—1634 • ALEXANDRE DUMAS, PERE

... did up his beaver for to pleasure him and took apertly somewhat in amity for he never drank no manner of mead which he then put by and anon full privily he voided the more part in his neighbour glass and his neighbour nist not of this wile. And he sat down in that castle with them for to rest him there awhile. ...
— Ulysses • James Joyce

... plenty of courage of your own,' said Mrs Constable. 'You can wile every girl in the place, but ...
— Hollyhock - A Spirit of Mischief • L. T. Meade

... burns fierce, perennial and 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

... intefear, but I would sujjest that if you beleeve in him he will do better. Your unbeleef sapps his will powers. you have only reprooved him for being late. why not incurrage him say by paying him 5 cents a morning for a wile to get amung his little maits on the stroak of nine? "declare for good and good will work for you" is one of our sayings. I have not time to treet Lafayette myself my busness being so engroassing but if you would take ...
— The Story of Patsy • Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin

... point. Who read those carefully wrought columns in The Ledger? Pot-bellied 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 ...
— Success - A Novel • Samuel Hopkins Adams

... please Me, and as that soul may have craved, the Presence of My Truth. And the soul will be so ignorant that it will turn from My Visitation, in order to complete its number, from a conscientious scruple against giving up what it began. It ought not to do thus, for this would be a wile of the devil. But at once, when it feels its mind ready for My Visitation, in any way, as I said, it should abandon the vocal prayer. Then, when the mental has passed, if there is time it can resume the other, which it had planned to say. But if there is not time it must not care nor be troubled ...
— Letters of Catherine Benincasa • Catherine Benincasa

... him for that. He wants to wile him out o' his last guinea, and then escape to his ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol VII • Various

... say to the King of the Rain, 'Whatever you do, that do quickly.' To-night I will engage to keep Tu-Kila-Kila in his temple. He shall see nothing. He shall hear nothing. I know not the Great Taboo; but I know from him this much—that if by wile or guile I keep him alone in his temple to-night, the King of the Rain may fight with him in single combat; and if the King of the Rain conquers in the battle, he becomes himself the home of ...
— The Great Taboo • Grant Allen

... out the blood would start With old King Hake; Not sneak in dark caves of the heart, Where curls the snake, And secret Murder's hiss is heard Ere the deed be done: He wove no web of wile and word; He bore with none. When sharp within its sheath asleep Lay his good sword, He held it royal work to keep His kingly word. A man of valour, bloody and wild, In Viking need; And yet of firelight ...
— The Influence of Old Norse Literature on English Literature • Conrad Hjalmar Nordby

... fondly at his wile's young, glowing face and even Miss Gascoigne, the hard, worldly woman, viewing all things in her narrow, worldly way, was silenced for the time. Then she began again, pouring out a torrent of explanations and self-exculpations, which soon resolved themselves ...
— Christian's Mistake • Dinah Maria Mulock Craik

... 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 gracious thoughts ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell • James Lowell

... beaming eyes, stars in life's wintry skies— Aft has adversity fled frae your ray; Farewell, that angel smile, stranger to woman's wile, That ever could beguile sorrow away; Farewell, ilk happy scene, wild wood, an' valley green, Where time, on rapture's wing, over us flew; Farewell, that peace of heart, thou only could'st impart— Farewell, dear Annie—a long, ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume V. - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various



Words linked to "Wile" :   trickery, chicanery, guile, put-on, deception, deceit, dissimulation, dissembling, hoax, shenanigan, fraud, fraudulence, humbug, wily, dupery, jugglery



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