Guile, n.
Etymology: [OE. guile, gile, OF. guile; of German origin, and the same word as E. wile. See Wile.]
Craft; deceitful cunning; artifice; duplicity; wile; deceit; treachery. Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. John i. 47. To wage by force or guile eternal war. Milton.
1 other Webster entry under this spelling
Guile, v. t.
To disguise or conceal; to deceive or delude. [Obs.] Spenser.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for guile; he lists it under artifice, deception.
Where he writes about it:
Deceit is the habit, deception the act; guile applies to the disposition out of which deceit and deception grow, and also to their actual practise. — from deception