FOR A WHILE

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does for a while mean? 

• FOR A WHILE (adverb)
  The adverb FOR A WHILE has 1 sense:

1. for a short time

  Familiarity information: FOR A WHILE used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FOR A WHILE (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

For a short time

Synonyms:

awhile; for a while

Context example:

the baby was quiet for a while

 Context examples 

The remembrance seemed for a while to overpower her, and she drooped and would have sunk down but for her husband's sustaining arm.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

We must be wary for a while, if we are to get the information which we want.

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

He closed his eyes for a while, then opened them.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

He had ruined for a while every hope of happiness for the most affectionate, generous heart in the world; and no one could say how lasting an evil he might have inflicted.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Why not become a reporter? —for a while, at least?

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I sense you need to unplug for a while.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Before supper was eaten we buried old Tom in the sand and stood round him for a while bare-headed in the breeze.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

He had, he said, but gone for a while that I might be the freer for my devotions.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The pair walked on again for a while in silence; and then “Enfield,” said Mr. Utterson, “that’s a good rule of yours.”

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Elizabeth also wept and was unhappy, but hers also was the misery of innocence, which, like a cloud that passes over the fair moon, for a while hides but cannot tarnish its brightness.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)