/euh hwuyl", euh wuyl"/ , adv.
for a short time or period: Stay awhile.
[ bef. 1000; ME; OE ane hwile (dat.); see A 1 , WHILE ]
Usage . The adverb AWHILE is spelled as a single word: After stopping in Hadley awhile, we drove to Deerfield. As the object of a preposition, the noun phrase A WHILE is used, especially in edited writing, but the single-word form is becoming increasingly common: We rested for a while (or awhile ).