Library / English Dictionary

FOR A WHILE

 I. (adverb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

For a short time

Example:

the baby was quiet for a while

Synonyms:

awhile; for a while

Classified under:

Adverbs

Credits

 Context examples: 

The man and his wife looked at each other for a while, and presently began to cry.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

I can guess your feelings, he said, but restrain them for a while: I have nearly finished; hear me to the end.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Slowly I climbed out and sat for a while upon the ground, ready to spring back into my refuge if any danger should appear.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He did not scruple to add that her being at home for a while would be a great advantage to everybody.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Emma's project of forgetting Mr. Elton for a while made her rather sorry to find, when they had all taken their places, that he was close to her.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

To the possibility of motives unanswerable in themselves, though unavoidably secret for a while?

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

"Don't let us do any lessons, Beth, for a while, but play all the time and rest, as the girls mean to," proposed Amy.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Weedon Scott debated with himself for a while, and then said more gently: "You are right, Matt. I don't know my own mind, and that's what's the trouble."

(White Fang, by Jack London)

We walked again, for a while, in silence.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Finally he returned them to the box once more and sat for a while in deep meditation.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)