spend vs while away

spend and while away both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
spend	No	No	Yes	No
while away	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, while away is a hyponym of spend; that is, while away is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than spend:

Other hyponyms of spend include soldier, slum, weekend, holiday, vacation, do, serve, get through, sojourn, overwinter, winter, summer.

spend (verb)	while away (verb)
pay out	spend or pass, as with boredom or in a pleasant manner; of time
spend completely
use up a period of time in a specific way