whittle

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle), Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: Whit=tle

CIDE DICTIONARY

whittle, n. [AS. hwītel, from hwit white; akin to Icel. hvītill a white bed cover. See White.].

 A grayish, coarse double blanket worn by countrywomen, in the west of England, over the shoulders, like a cloak or shawl.  [1913 Webster]

Whittle shawl, a kind of fine woolen shawl, originally and especially a white one.

whittle, n. [OE. thwitel, fr. AS. pwītan to cut. Cf. Thwittle, Thwaite a piece of ground.].

 A knife; esp., a pocket, sheath, or clasp knife.   Macaulay.  [1913 Webster]
"He wore a Sheffield whittle in his hose."  [1913 Webster]

whittle, v. t. 

•  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.  [1913 Webster]
•  To edge; to sharpen; to render eager or excited; esp., to excite with liquor; to inebriate.  [1913 Webster]

  "“In vino veritas.” When men are well whittled, their tongues run at random."  [1913 Webster]

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.  [1913 Webster]
"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."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

whittle, v.
1 tr. & (foll. by at) intr. pare (wood etc.) with repeated slicing with a knife.
2 tr. (often foll. by away, down) reduce by repeated subtractions.

Etymology

var. of ME thwitel long knife f. OE thwitan to cut off

THESAURUS

whittle

amputate, ax, bisect, blade, butcher, carve, chop, cleave, cold steel, cut, cut away, cut in two, cut off, cutlery, cutter, dagger, dichotomize, dissever, edge tools, excise, fissure, gash, hack, halve, hew, incise, jigsaw, knife, lance, naked steel, pare, pigsticker, point, prune, puncturer, rend, rive, saw, scissor, sever, sharpener, slash, slice, slit, snip, split, steel, sunder, sword, tear, toad sticker

ROGET THESAURUS

whittle

Disjunction

VB be disjoined, come off, fall off, come to pieces, fall to pieces, peel off, get loose, disjoin, disconnect, disengage, disunite, dissociate, dispair, divorce, part, dispart, detach, separate, cut off, rescind, segregate, set apart, keep apart, insulate, isolate, throw out of gear, cut adrift, loose, unloose, undo, unbind, unchain, unlock, unpack, unravel, disentangle, set free, sunder, divide, subdivide, sever, dissever, abscind, circumcise, cut, incide, incise, saw, snip, nib, nip, cleave, rive, rend, slit, split, splinter, chip, crack, snap, break, tear, burst, rend, 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, disintegrate, dismember, disbranch, disband, disperse, dislocate, disjoint, break up, mince, comminute, apportion, part, part company, separate, leave.

Sharpness

N sharpness, acuity, acumination, spinosity, point, spike, spine, spicule, spiculum, needle, hypodermic needle, tack, nail, pin, prick, prickle, spur, rowel, barb, spit, cusp, horn, antler, snag, tag thorn, bristle, Adam's needle, bear grass, tine, yucca, nib, tooth, tusk, spoke, cog, ratchet, crag, crest, arete, cone peak, sugar loaf, pike, aiguille, spire, pyramid, steeple, beard, chevaux de frise, porcupine, hedgehog, brier, bramble, thistle, comb, awn, beggar's lice, bur, burr, catchweed, cleavers, clivers, goose, grass, hairif, hariff, flax comb, hackle, hatchel, heckle, wedge, knife edge, cutting edge, blade, edge tool, cutlery, knife, penknife, whittle, razor, razor blade, safety razor, straight razor, electric razor, scalpel, bistoury, lancet, plowshare, coulter, colter, hatchet, ax, pickax, mattock, pick, adze, gill, billhook, cleaver, cutter, scythe, sickle, scissors, shears, pruning shears, cutters, wire cutters, nail clipper, paper cutter, sword, bodkin, belduque, bowie knife, paring knife, bushwhacker, drawing knife, drawing shave, microtome, chisel, screwdriver blade, flint blade, guillotine, sharpener, hone, strop, grindstone, whetstone, novaculite, steel, emery, sharp, keen, acute, acicular, aciform, aculeated, acuminated, pointed, tapering, conical, pyramidal, mucronate, mucronated, spindle shaped, needle shaped, spiked, spiky, ensiform, peaked, salient, cusped, cuspidate, cuspidated, cornute, cornuted, cornicultate, prickly, spiny, spinous, spicular, thorny, bristling, muricated, pectinated, studded, thistly, briary, craggy, snaggy, digitated, two-edged, fusiform, dentiform, denticulated, toothed, odontoid, starlike, stellated, stelliform, sagittate, sagittiform, arrowheaded, arrowy, barbed, spurred, acinaciform, apiculate, apiculated, aristate, awned, awny, bearded, calamiform, cone-shaped, coniform, crestate, echinate, gladiate, lanceolate, lanciform, awl, awl-shaped, lance-shaped, awl- shaped, scimitar-shaped, sword-shaped, setarious, spinuliferous, subulate, tetrahedral, xiphoid, cutting, sharp edged, knife edged, sharp as a razor, keen as a razor, sharp as a needle, sharp as a tack, sharpened, set.