• IPA: /ˈʍɪtəl/, /ˈwɪtəl/

whittle (plural whittles)

1. A knife; especially, a pocket knife, sheath knife, or clasp knife.

   • A butcher's whittle.

   • 18, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 3, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify ), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, OCLC 1069526323 ↗:

   • He wore a Sheffield whittle in his hose.

• Russian: большо́й нож

whittle (whittles, present participle whittling; past and past participle whittled)

1. (transitive or intransitive) To cut or shape wood with a knife.
2. (transitive) To reduce or gradually eliminate something (such as a debt).
3. (transitive, figurative) To make eager or excited; to excite with liquor; to inebriate.

   • When men are well whittled, their tongues run at random.

• French: tailler
• German: schnitzen
• Italian: intagliare
• Russian: выстругивать
• Spanish: tallar

• German: wegschnibbeln
• Russian: уменьша́ть
• Spanish: tallar

whittle (plural whittles)

1. (archaic) A coarse greyish double blanket worn by countrywomen, in the west of England, over the shoulders, like a cloak or shawl.
2. (archaic) A whittle shawl; a kind of fine woollen shawl, originally and especially a white one.

1. Surname