somewhile

• somwhile (obsolete)

From Middle English summehwile, summewile, sumwile, equivalent to some +‎ while. Compare Dutch somwijlen (“sometimes”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈsʌmʍaɪl/, /ˈsʌmwaɪl/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Audio (General American):

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somewhile (not comparable) (chiefly poetic)

1. Sometimes; from time to time; at times
2. At a certain time; at one time; for a non-defined length of time
   • 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “May. Ægloga Quinta.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Iohn Wolfe for Iohn Harrison the yonger, […], →OCLC:

     Tho, under colour of shepeheards, somewhile / There crept in wolves, ful of fraude and guile.

   • 1868, Sidney Lanier, The Jacquerie. A Fragment, Chapter IV:

     Of him that spoke, and stopped at last, and sat
     Still, underneath where Gris Grillon was laid,
     And heard, somewhile, with languid scornful gaze,
     The friar putting blame on priest and knight.

   • 1915, Rupert Brooke, A Memory (poem):

     Somewhile before the dawn I rose, and stept
     Softly along the dim way to your room,
     And found you sleeping in the quiet gloom

• otherwhile

• somewhiles

• “somewhile”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.