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Wipe vs Wile - What's the difference?

wipe | wile |

As nouns the difference between wipe and wile

is that wipe is the act of wiping something or wipe can be the lapwing while wile is wila, black tree lichen (edible lichen).

As a verb wipe

is to move an object over, maintaining contact, with the intention of removing some substance from the surface (cf rub).

wipe

English

(wikipedia wipe)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) . More at (l), (l).

Verb

(wip)
  • To move an object over, maintaining contact, with the intention of removing some substance from the surface. (cf. rub)
    • Melissa wiped her glasses with her shirt.
    I wiped the sweat from my brow with the back of my hand.
    Tom started to wipe his eyes.
  • * 1900 , , (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)
    • So they passed through the Palace Gates and were led into a big room with a green carpet and lovely green furniture set with emeralds. The soldier made them all wipe their feet upon a green mat before entering this room, and when they were seated he said politely
  • To remove by rubbing; to rub off; to obliterate; usually followed by away'', ''off'', or ''out .
  • * (rfdate) Milton
    • Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon.
  • (obsolete) To cheat; to defraud; to trick; usually followed by out .
    • (Spenser)
  • * (rfdate) Robynson (More's Utopia)
    • If they by coveyne [covin] or gile be wiped beside their goods.
  • (computing) To erase.
    • I accidentally wiped my hard drive.
  • (plumbing) To make (a joint, as between pieces of lead pipe), by surrounding the junction with a mass of solder, applied in a plastic condition by means of a rag with which the solder is shaped by rubbing.

    • Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of wiping something.
    • multiple wipes of a computer's hard disk
  • A soft piece of cloth or cloth-like material used for wiping.
  • A kind of film transition where one shot replaces another by travelling from one side of the frame to another or with a special shape.

    • Derived terms

    * asswipe * baby wipe * wet wipe * wipe away * wipe off * wipe out * wipeout * wipe somebody's eye * wipe the floor * wipe the slate clean * wiper

    Etymology 2

    Compare (etyl) (m), (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The lapwing.

    • wile

    English

    (Webster 1913)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (usually, in the plural) A trick or stratagem practiced for ensnaring or deception; a sly, insidious artifice
    • He was seduced by her wiles .
  • * Milton
    • to frustrate all our plots and wiles

    Synonyms

    * beguilement * allurement

    Related terms

    * guile * wily

    Verb

    (wil)
  • To entice or lure
  • , "to pass the time".
    • Here's a pleasant way to wile away the hours.

    Usage notes

    The phrase meaning to pass time idly is while away''. We can trace the meaning in an adjectival sense for while back to Old English, hw?len — ''passing, transitory''. We also see it in the whilend — ''temporary, transitory''. But since ''wile away occurs so often, it is now included in many dictionaries.

    References

    * Grammarist.com While away or wile away? * Common Errors in the English Language Wile Away, While Away ----