whittle

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwʰɪtəl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪtəl

Etymology 1

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English whittel (“large knife”), an alteration of thwitel, itself from thwiten (“to whittle”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old English þwītan. Compare Old Norse þveita (“to hurl”)

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “OED gives also ‘to intoxicate’”)

Noun

whittle (plural whittles)

1. A knife; especially, a pocket knife, sheath knife, or clasp knife.
   • Dryden

     A butcher's whittle.

   • Macaulay

     Rude whittles.

   • Betterton

     He wore a Sheffield whittle in his hose.

Translations

large knife

• Dutch: (groot (nl)) mes (nl) n
• Finnish: leuku (fi)
• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: ξυήλη f (xuḗlē)

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: scyzoryk (pl) m
• Russian: большо́й нож m (bolʹšój nož)

Verb

1. (transitive or intransitive) To cut or shape wood with a knife.
2. (transitive) To reduce or gradually eliminate something (such as a debt).
3. (transitive, figurative) To make eager or excited; to excite with liquor; to inebriate.
   • Withals

     When men are well whittled, their tongues run at random.

Derived terms

• whittle down
• whittling

Translations

cut or shape wood with a knife

• Dutch: kerven (nl), snijden (nl), aanspitsen
• Finnish: vuolla (fi), veistää (fi)
• French: tailler (fr)
• German: schnitzen (de)
• Hungarian: faragcsál (hu), farigcsál
• Italian: intagliare (it)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Norwegian: spikke
• Polish: wystrugać, wyrzeźbić (pl)
• Russian: выстругивать (ru) (vystrugivatʹ), вырезать (ru) (vyrezatʹ)
• Spanish: tallar (es)
• Swedish: karva (sv), tälja (sv)
• Vietnamese: vót (vi), gọt (vi)

reduce or gradually eliminate something

• Dutch: afknagen (nl), verminderen (nl)
• Finnish: leikata (fi)
• German: wegschnibbeln
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: lefarag (hu), megnyírbál, csökkent (hu)
• Russian: уменьша́ть (ru) (umenʹšátʹ), своди́ть на нет (svodítʹ na net)
• Spanish: tallar (es)

• Irish: ^{(please verify)} smiot
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Etymology 2

From an (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old English word for "white"; akin to an Icelandic word for a white bedcover.

Noun

whittle (plural whittles)

1. (archaic) A coarse greyish double blanket worn by countrywomen, in the west of England, over the shoulders, like a cloak or shawl.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Charles Kingsley to this entry?)

2. (archaic) A whittle shawl; a kind of fine woollen shawl, originally and especially a white one.

References

• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967