while
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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Search teams are looking for a jet skier who disappeared while out on the water in Long Beach on Sunday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
The organiser of a group of affected residents accused the prime minister of not wanting to meet them, while Lecornu's office it has "nothing to hide" about how fire operations have been conducted, AFP reports.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
Lunardelli first fell for Comporta seven years ago, while visiting from São Paulo, and now splits her time between Brazil and Portugal.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
“Heretic” was underbaked and half-thought, while “Companion” tried to create big laughs and bigger action from minuscule ideas.
From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2026
That day really messed me up for a while.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
During the pandemic, he whiled away lockdown by rising early and chronicling nature’s progress in more than 100 pictures on an iPad.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Taking a Greyhound bus back to Palo Alto, Lesh whiled away a few years rooming with Constanten and working at the post office as he composed classical music.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 25, 2024
The family said their "quiet and uncomplaining" mother, severely disabled by her stroke, had whiled away her days in a general care unit, and the specialist support she needed had barely begun.
From BBC ● May 29, 2024
Many have been in the tech sector, which hired heavily during the pandemic, when people whiled away time stuck at home playing games online.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 22, 2024
I whiled away many a pleasant hour gnawing at a flipper joint or splitting open bones and licking out their marrow.
From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
Since their arrival in Kinshasa, a megacity of more than 17 million people, the 15 South American migrants have been whiling away their time in a complex near the airport.
From Barron's ● Apr. 22, 2026
We were both whiling away the pandemic in Amagansett—a tiny Long Island beach town most people pass through on their way to Montauk—and I promised to teach her how to surf.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2025
Zalatoris couldn’t swing a club for months, instead whiling away the hours by watching family and friends play back at Maridoe Golf Club in Dallas.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 8, 2024
“Grapefruit—Juicy Fruit” isn’t precisely a song about whiling away the hours on a beach but the mellow groove certainly feels like it was designed to soundtrack a peaceful afternoon.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2023
Suddenly I realized that this unprofitable task of his was probably nothing more than a method of whiling away the early morning hours, much as other insomniacs do crossword puzzles.
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
