WHITTLE • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Whittle

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/wˈɪtəl/ /hwˈɪtəl/ Listen

verb

Whittle v. t. (past & past part. whittled; pres. part. whittling)

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.

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.

A grayish, coarse double blanket worn by countrywomen, in the west of England, over the shoulders, like a cloak or shawl.

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."

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Etymology of 'Whittle'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Whittle" Quotes from Famous Books

... a lot of fun in the poorhouse, they whittle things with sticks," Pee-wee said. "If you always have fun no matter what, that shows ...

— Roy Blakeley in the Haunted Camp • Percy Keese Fitzhugh

... it was so new and serious, he felt as if he would better lay it by, to think over a good deal before he could understand all about it. But he had time to get dismal again and long for four o'clock, because he had nothing to do except whittle. Mrs. Moss went to take a nap; Bab and Betty sat demurely on their bench reading Sunday books; no boys were allowed to come and play; even the hens retired under the currant-bushes, and the ...

— St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, V. 5, April 1878 - Scribner's Illustrated • Various

... Landon (in the Drawing-room Scrap-book for 1835), to whom a lady of this town communicated the fragment through the medium of a friend. Its real locality is a ruined tower, seated on the corner of an extensive earth-work surrounded by a moat, on the western side of Whittle Dean, near Ovingham. Since this period, I have myself taken down many additional verses from the recitation of the adjacent villagers, and will be happy to afford any further ...

— Notes & Queries, No. 47, Saturday, September 21, 1850 • Various

... 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 ...

— The Fireside Chats of Franklin Delano Roosevelt • Franklin Delano Roosevelt

... that Della was no mechanician, and she had not foreseen that, having one flat side, her balls might decline to roll. But that dismay was brief. A weaker soul would have flinched; to Della it was a futile check, a pebble under the wave. She laid her balls calmly aside. Some day she would whittle them into shape; for there were always coming to Della days full of roomy leisure and large content. Meanwhile apples would serve her turn,—good alike to draw a weary mind out of its channel or teach the shape of spheres. And so, with two russets for balls and the clothes-slice ...

— Tiverton Tales • Alice Brown

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