whittle.
A knife; especially, a clasp-knife, pocket knife, or sheath knife.
Meaning & usage
A knife; especially, a clasp-knife, pocket knife, or sheath knife.
Where this word comes from
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.
To cut or shape wood with a knife.
To reduce or gradually eliminate something (such as a debt).
To make eager or excited; to excite with liquor; to inebriate.
Where this word comes from
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.
A covering for a bed; sheet.
A coarse greyish double blanket worn over the shoulders, like a cloak or shawl.
A kind of fine woollen shawl, originally and especially a white one.
A baby's flannel; a baby's woollen napkin; a flannel petticoat.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English whytel, from Old English hwītel (“cloak, blanket”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwītil, from Proto-Germanic *hwītilaz, equivalent to white + -le; akin to Icelandic hvítill (“white bedcover, sheet, linen”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.