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Whittle   /wˈɪtəl/  /hwˈɪtəl/   Listen
verb
Whittle  v. t.  (past & past part. whittled; pres. part. whittling)  
1.
To pare or cut off the surface of with a small knife; to cut or shape, as a piece of wood held in the hand, with a clasp knife or pocketknife.
2.
To edge; to sharpen; to render eager or excited; esp., to excite with liquor; to inebriate. (Obs.) ""In vino veritas." When men are well whittled, their tongues run at random."



Whittle  v. i.  To cut or shape a piece of wood with am small knife; to cut up a piece of wood with a knife. "Dexterity with a pocketknife is a part of a Nantucket education; but I am inclined to think the propensity is national. Americans must and will whittle."



noun
Whittle  n.  
1.
A grayish, coarse double blanket worn by countrywomen, in the west of England, over the shoulders, like a cloak or shawl.
2.
Same as Whittle shawl, below.
Whittle shawl, a kind of fine woolen shawl, originally and especially a white one.



Whittle  n.  A knife; esp., a pocket, sheath, or clasp knife. "A butcher's whittle." "Rude whittles." "He wore a Sheffield whittle in his hose."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Whittle" Quotes from Famous Books



... incise; saw, snip, nib, nip, cleave, rive, rend, slit, split, splinter, chip, crack, snap, break, tear, burst; rend &c, rend asunder, rend in twain; wrench, rupture, shatter, shiver, cranch^, crunch, craunch^, chop; cut up, rip up; hack, hew, slash; whittle; haggle, hackle, discind^, lacerate, scamble^, mangle, gash, hash, slice. cut up, carve, dissect, anatomize; dislimb^; take to pieces, pull to pieces, pick to pieces, tear to pieces; tear to tatters, tear piecemeal, tear limb from limb; divellicate^; skin &c 226; disintegrate, dismember, disbranch^, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget

... on the log, Tayoga, show that there was some indecision, at first, and much talking. Two or three of the French officers had their hunting knives in their hands, and they carved nervously at the log, just as a man will often whittle as he argues." ...
— The Masters of the Peaks - A Story of the Great North Woods • Joseph A. Altsheler

... for an old dead top of a pine or cedar. If you cannot find one, chop down a cedar tree. Whittle a handful of splinters and shavings from the dry heart. Try to find the lee side of a rock or log where the wind and rain do not beat in. First put down the shavings or some dry birch bark if you can find it, and shelter it as well as you can from the rain. Pile up some larger splinters of wood ...
— Outdoor Sports and Games • Claude H. Miller

... to wonder where Stuart's cavalry had gone that morning, and why "Old Joe" quartered behind the mulberries in the brick farmhouse, had sent a staff officer to "Old Jack," and why Bee's and Bartow's and Elzey's brigades had been similarly visited; almost too hot to play checkers, to whittle a set of chessmen, to finish that piece of Greek, to read "Ivanhoe" and resolve to fight like Brian de Bois Gilbert and Richard Coeur de Lion in one, to write home, to rout out knapsack and haversack, and look again at fifty precious trifles; too hot ...
— The Long Roll • Mary Johnston

... to cavil or to question the standard set by this universal agreement. It is time for patience and understanding and cooperation. The workers of this country have rights under this law which cannot be taken from them, and nobody will be permitted to whittle them away, but, on the other hand, no aggression is now necessary to attain those rights. The whole country will be united to get them for you. The principle that applies to the employers applies to the workers as well, ...
— The Fireside Chats of Franklin Delano Roosevelt • Franklin Delano Roosevelt


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