whittle
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle English whittel (“large knife”), an alteration of thwitel, itself from thwiten (“to whittle”), from Old English þwītan (“to strike down, whittle”), from Proto-Germanic *þwītaną, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *twey- (“to shake, hurl, toss”). Compare Old Norse þveita (“to hurl”), Ancient Greek σείω (seíō, “I shake”). Related to thwite and thwaite.
Noun
whittle (plural whittles)
- A knife; especially, a clasp knife, pocket knife, or sheath knife.
- 1682 December 15 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John] Dryden, [Nathaniel] Lee, The Duke of Guise. A Tragedy. […], London: […] T[homas] H[odgkin] for R[ichard] Bentley […], and J[acob] Tonson […], published 1683, →OCLC, Act IV, scene i, page 50:
- Novv if any man can be ſo unkind to his ovvn Body, for I meddle not vvith your Souls, as to ſtand ſtill like a good Chriſtian, and offer his VVeeſon to a Butcher's VVhittle, I ſay no more but that he may be ſav'd, and that's the beſt can come on him.
- 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter III, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:
- Rude whittles.
- 1873, Alfred Gatty, Sheffield: Past and Present:
- The Sheffield whittle was the common knife of the country, which every one carried for general purposes, who was not entitled by rank to wear a sword.
Translations
Verb
whittle (third-person singular simple present whittles, present participle whittling, simple past and past participle whittled)
- (transitive or intransitive) To cut or shape wood with a knife.
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter X, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
- He was sitting on a bench before the fire, with his feet on the stove hearth, and in one hand was holding close up to his face that little negro idol of his; peering hard into its face, and with a jack-knife gently whittling away at its nose, meanwhile humming to himself in his heathenish way.
- (transitive) To reduce or gradually eliminate something (such as a debt).
- (transitive, figurative) To make eager or excited; to excite with liquor; to inebriate.
- 1554, John Withals, A Dictionarie in English and Latine:
- When men are well whitled, their toungs run at randome
Derived terms
Translations
cut or shape wood with a knife
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reduce or gradually eliminate something
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Etymology 2
From Middle English whytel, from Old English hwītel (“cloak, blanket”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwītil, from Proto-Germanic *hwītilaz, equivalent to white + -le; akin to Icelandic hvítill (“white bedcover, sheet, linen”).
Noun
whittle (plural whittles)
- (archaic) A coarse greyish double blanket worn by countrywomen, in the west of England, over the shoulders, like a cloak or shawl.
- 1857, Charles Kingsley, “(please specify the page)”, in Two Years Ago, volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC:
- Her figure is tall , graceful , and slight ; the severity of its outlines suiting well with the severity of her dress , with the brown stuff gown , and plain gray whittle
- (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
- Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “whittle”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
- Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.
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