Definition/Meaning of whittle

• English - Noun: whittle (plural whittles) A knife ; especially, a clasp-knife , pocket knife , or sheath knife . 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…
• English - Verb: whittle (third-person singular simple present whittles, present participle whittling, simple past and past participle whittled) (intransitive, transitive) 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,…
• English - References: Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary , Springfield , Massachusetts , G .&C. Merriam Co ., 1967
• English - Etymology: 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 . Etymology 2. From…
• English - Pronunciation: IPA: /ˈwɪtəl/ , [ˈwɪtʰl̩] , /ˈwɪɾl̩/ , /ˈʍɪɾl̩/ (Ireland, Scotland) IPA: /ˈʍɪtəl/ , [ˈw̥ɪtʰl̩] Rhymes: -ɪtəl