Whittle
['wɪt(ə)l] or ['wɪtl]
Definition
(noun.) English aeronautical engineer who invented the jet aircraft engine (1907-1996).
(verb.) cut small bits or pare shavings from; 'whittle a piece of wood'.
Edited by Ivan--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) A grayish, coarse double blanket worn by countrywomen, in the west of England, over the shoulders, like a cloak or shawl.
(n.) Same as Whittle shawl, below.
(n.) A knife; esp., a pocket, sheath, or clasp knife.
(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.
(v. t.) To edge; to sharpen; to render eager or excited; esp., to excite with liquor; to inebriate.
(v. i.) To cut or shape a piece of wood with am small knife; to cut up a piece of wood with a knife.
Inputed by Giles
Definition
n. (prov.) a woollen shawl: a blanket.
v.t. to pare or cut with a knife: to cut to an edge.—v.i. to cut wood aimlessly: (obs. slang) to confess at the gallows.—n. a small pocket-knife.
Inputed by Cole
Examples
- Almost daily he whetted his keen knife and scraped and whittled at his young beard to eradicate this degrading emblem of apehood. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- Thomas Blanchard, born in Massachusetts in 1788, while a boy, was accustomed to astonish his companions by the miniature wind-wheels and water-wheels that he whittled out with his knife. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- I went with Musgrave to his study and whittled myself this peg, to which I tied this long string with a knot at each yard. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- While on this voyage the conception of a revolving pistol came to him, and he whittled out a rude model of one with a penknife from a piece of wood. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- The very knife with which a stick is whittled is a machine. Bertha M. Clark. General Science.
- Don't leave it so close to the cave, the whittling man, who had blue eyes in a dark, good-looking lazy gypsy face, the color of smoked leather, said. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- The gypsy winked at Robert Jordan and went on whittling. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- It was a figure four trap and he was whittling the crossbar for it. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- He was cutting away on a stick with a knife and he stared at them as they came up, then went on whittling. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- The old man was finishing whittling the last of a pile of wedges he had copied from a model Robert Jordan had given him. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
Inputed by Brice