From while (noun) + -s (adverbial suffix); compare whilst.
Meanings
(Scotland, archaic, not-comparable) sometimes; at times
Man, I've diverted myself whiles with the science of the stars, and can make a shape at calculating a nativity. 1927, John Buchan, Witch Wood, published 1988, page 14:
(Scotland, archaic, not-comparable) meanwhile
the good knight whiles humming to himself the lay of some majored troubadour 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:
From while (noun) + -s (adverbial suffix); compare whilst.
Meanings
(archaic, dialectal) while, whilst
Portia: […]Whiles we shut the gate upon one wooer, another knocks at the door. c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
for it so falls out,
That what we have we prize not to the worth
Whiles we enjoy it; but being lack'd and lost,
Why, then we rack the value, then we find
The virtue that possession would not show us
Whiles it was ours. 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]: