Link Centre Dictionary

whittle

UK/ˈwɪtəl/ US/ˈwɪtʰl̩/ rare archaic

verb

1.

cut small bits or pare shavings from

  • “whittle a piece of wood”
Synonyms

Origin

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.

Phrases

  • whittle away
  • whittle down
  • whittle the whalebone

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.