awhile

/euh hwuyl", euh wuyl"/, adv.

for a short time or period: Stay awhile.

[bef. 1000; ME; OE ane hwile (dat.); see A¹, WHILE]

Usage. The adverb AWHILE is spelled as a single word: After stopping in Hadley awhile, we drove to Deerfield. As the object of a preposition, the noun phrase A WHILE is used, especially in edited writing, but the single-word form is becoming increasingly common: We rested for a while (or awhile).

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