Free TranslationFree Translation
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Whittle   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."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |





"Whittle" Quotes from Famous Books



... of Sir Henry Tyler and his friends to stimulate persecutions for blasphemy at length took practical shape, and in July, 1882, Mr. Foote, the editor, Mr. Ramsey, the publisher, and Mr. Whittle, the printer of the Freethinker, were summoned for blasphemy by Sir Henry Tyler himself. An attempt was made to involve Mr. Bradlaugh in the proceedings, and the solicitors promised to drop the case against the editor and printer if Mr. Bradlaugh would himself sell them some copies ...
— Annie Besant - An Autobiography • Annie Besant

... 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

... 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; ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget

... reef in the wash of a weedy sea, And you sit and stare at the empty glare where the gulls wait greedily. And sometimes it leads to an Arctic trail, and the snows where your torn feet freeze, And you whittle away the useless clay, and crawl on your hands and knees. Often it leads to the dead-pit; always it leads to pain; By the bones of your brothers ye know it, but oh, to follow you're fain. By your bones they will follow behind you, till the ways ...
— The Spell of the Yukon • Robert Service

... and began to whittle, an occupation that in him denoted sustained mental exertion. The other sat on before the empty fireplace, the mark upon his forehead, his hand twitching where it lay upon the arm of his chair. The clock ticked loudly; the sun, now low in the heavens, sent its gold shafts through the ...
— Lewis Rand • Mary Johnston

... speakes it, In pitty of our aged, and our youth, I cannot choose but tell him that I care not, And let him tak't at worst: For their Kniues care not, While you haue throats to answer. For my selfe, There's not a whittle, in th' vnruly Campe, But I do prize it at my loue, before The reuerends Throat in Athens. So I leaue you To the protection of the prosperous ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare

... the moonlight was gone. Henri ran to the doorway then and found him lying, his head on the little step where he had been wont to sit and whittle and sing his Tipperaree. He was dead. Henri carried him in and laid him in the little passage, very reverently. Then ...
— The Amazing Interlude • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... were still there. It was not an unbroken flight. They stopped now and then for rest, but, when the voice of the hound came near again, they would resume their easy run toward the South. At every stop Tom Ross would turn his back to the others, take out his hunting knife and begin to whittle at something. But when they started again the hunting knife was back in its sheath once more, and Tom's appearance ...
— The Border Watch - A Story of the Great Chief's Last Stand • Joseph A. Altsheler

... Cap'n Bill and he had come to the Land of Oz with Trot, and had been made welcome on account of his cleverness, honesty and good nature. He wore a wooden leg to replace the one he had lost and was a great friend of all the children in Oz because he could whittle all sorts of toys out of wood with ...
— Glinda of Oz • L. Frank Baum

... Dropped my pencil. [Picks it up.] Of course fell on the "buttered side," an' I've got to whittle it agin. [Takes enormous knife from his pocket and ...
— Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: In Mizzoura • Augustus Thomas



Words linked to "Whittle" :   aeronautical engineer, Sir Frank Whittle, whittle away, pare, whittler, cut, whittle down, Frank Whittle



Copyright © 2024 e-Free Translation.com