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Wild vs While - What's the difference?

wild | while |

As a proper noun wild

is for a wild person, or for someone living in uncultivated land.

As a noun while is

an uncertain duration of time, a period of time.

As a conjunction while is

during the same time that.

As a verb while is

to pass (time) idly.

wild

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Untamed; not domesticated.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Winter's not gone yet, if the wild geese fly that way.
  • * Milton
  • The woods and desert caves, / With wild thyme and gadding vine o'ergrown.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= David Van Tassel], [http://www.americanscientist.org/authors/detail/lee-dehaan Lee DeHaan
  • , title= Wild Plants to the Rescue , volume=101, issue=3, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Plant breeding is always a numbers game.
  • (senseid) Unrestrained or uninhibited.
  • Raucous, unruly, or licentious.
  • Visibly and overtly anxious; frantic.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=August 7, author=Chris Bevan, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Man City 2-3 Man Utd , passage=City, in contrast, were lethargic in every area of the pitch and their main contribution in the first half-hour was to keep referee Phil Dowd busy, with Micah Richards among four of their players booked early on, in his case for a wild lunge on Young.}}
  • Disheveled, tangled, or untidy.
  • Enthusiastic.
  • Inaccurate.
  • Exposed to the wind and sea; unsheltered.
  • a wild roadstead
  • (nautical) Hard to steer; said of a vessel.
  • (mathematics, of a knot) Not capable of being represented as a finite closed polygonal chain.
  • Antonyms

    * (mathematics) tame

    Derived terms

    * in the wild * walk on the wild side * wild allspice * wild and woolly * wild animal * wild balsam apple * wild basil * wild blueberry * wild boar * wild bugloss * wild camomile * wild card * wildcard * wildcarrot * wild cat * wildcat * wildcat strike * wildcatter * wild celery * wild cherry * wild child * wildcrafting * wild cumin * wild drake * wildebeest * wild elder * wilden * wilder * wilderness * wildest * wild-eyed * wildfire * wildflower * wildfowl * wild geranium * wild ginger * wild goose * wild goose chase * wild-goose chase * wild hyacinth * wilding * wild Irishman * wildish * wild land * wild licorice * wildlife * wildly * wild mammee * wild marjoram * wild mustard * wildness * wild oat * wild pieplant * wild pigeon * wild pink * wild pitch * wild plantain * wild plum * wild purslane * wild rice * wild rye * wild Spaniard * wild strawberry * wildstyle * wild turkey * wild vanilla * Wild West * wildwood

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • Inaccurately; not on target.
  • The javelin flew wild and struck a spectator, to the horror of all observing.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The undomesticated state of a wild animal
  • After mending the lion's leg, we returned him to the wild
  • (chiefly, in the plural) a wilderness
  • * 1730–1774 , Oliver Goldsmith, Introductory to Switzerland
  • Thus every good his native wilds impart
    Imprints the patriot passion on his heart;
    And e’en those ills that round his mansion rise
    Enhance the bliss his scanty funds supplies.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To commit random acts of assault, robbery, and rape in an urban setting, especially as a gang.
  • * 1989 , David E. Pitt, Jogger's Attackers Terrorized at Least 9 in 2 Hours , New York Times (April 22, 1989), page 1:
  • *:: ...Chief of Detectives Robert Colangelo, who said the attacks appeared unrelated to money, race, drugs, or alcohol, said that some of the 20 youths brought in for questioning has told investigators that the crime spree was the product of a pastime called "wilding".
  • *:: "It's not a term that we in the police had heard before," the chief said, noting that the police were unaware of any similar incident in the park recently. "They just said, 'We were going wilding.' In my mind at this point, it implies that they were going to raise hell."...
  • Statistics

    * 1000 English basic words ----

    while

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An uncertain duration of time, a period of time.
  • He lectured for quite a long while .

    Conjunction

    (wikipedia while) (English Conjunctions)
  • During the same time that.
  • * , chapter=12
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=While the powwow was going on the big woman came back again. She was consider'ble rumpled and scratched up, but there was fire in her eye.}}
  • * 1948 , , North from Mexico / The Spanish-Speaking People of The United States , J. B. Lippincott Company, page 25,
  • While De Anza was exploring the Bay of San Francisco, seeking a site for the presidio, the American colonists on the eastern seaboard, three thousand miles away, were celebrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=David Simpson
  • , volume=188, issue=26, page=36, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Fantasy of navigation , passage=Like most human activities, ballooning has sponsored heroes and hucksters and a good deal in between. For every dedicated scientist patiently recording atmospheric pressure and wind speed while shivering at high altitudes, there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls willing to dangle from a basket or parachute down to earth.}}
  • Although.
  • * 2013 September 28, (Kenan Malik), " London Is Special, but Not That Special," New York Times (retrieved 28 September 2013):
  • While Britain’s recession has been deep and unforgiving, in London it has been relatively shallow.
  • (Northern England, Scotland) Until.
  • * Beaumont and Fletcher
  • I may be conveyed into your chamber; I'll lie under your bed while midnight.
  • As long as.
  • * I. Watts
  • Use your memory; you will sensibly experience a gradual improvement, while you take care not to overload it.

    Verb

    (whil)
  • To pass (time) idly.
  • * Longfellow
  • The lovely lady whiled the hours away.
  • To loiter.
  • (Spectator)

    Derived terms

    * while away * meanwhile * the while