whittle

plural whittles

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

   Rude whittles.

   1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter III, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   Novv if any man can be ſo unkind to his ovvn Body, for I meddle not vvith your Souls, as to ſtand ſtill like a good Chriſtian, and offer his VVeeſon to a Butcher's VVhittle, I ſay no more but that he may be ſav'd, and that's the beſt can come on him.

   1682 December 15 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John] Dryden, [Nathaniel] Lee, The Duke of Guise. A Tragedy. […], London: […] T[homas] H[odgkin] for R[ichard] Bentley […], and J[acob] Tonson […], published 1683, →OCLC, Act IV, scene i, page 50

   The Sheffield whittle was the common knife of the country, which every one carried for general purposes, who was not entitled by rank to wear a sword.

   1873, Alfred Gatty, Sheffield: Past and Present

present singular third person whittles · participle present whittling · participle past whittled · past whittled

1. intransitivetransitiveTo cut or shape wood with a knife.

   He was sitting on a bench before the fire, with his feet on the stove hearth, and in one hand was holding close up to his face that little negro idol of his; peering hard into its face, and with a jack-knife gently whittling away at its nose, meanwhile humming to himself in his heathenish way.

   1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter X, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC

2. transitiveTo reduce or gradually eliminate something (such as a debt).
3. figurativelytransitiveTo make eager or excited; to excite with liquor; to inebriate.

   When men are well whitled, their toungs run at randome

   1554, John Withals, A Dictionarie in English and Latine

plural whittles

1. archaicA covering for a bed; sheet.
2. archaicA coarse greyish double blanket worn over the shoulders, like a cloak or shawl.

   Her figure is tall, graceful, and slight; the severity of its outlines suiting well with the severity of her dress, with the brown stuff gown, and plain gray whittle

   1857, Charles Kingsley, “(please specify the page)”, in Two Years Ago, volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC

   Synonyms: cape, mantle

3. archaicA kind of fine woollen shawl, originally and especially a white one.

   Synonyms: whittle shawl

4. archaicdialectalA baby's flannel; a baby's woollen napkin; a flannel petticoat.

plural Whittles

1. countableuncountableA surname.

   Jon Whittle, a former director of the digital research centre at the country's national science agency CSIRO, who is now a leading voice in AI and business, agrees with this.

   2026 September 3, Claire Keenan, “AI data centres are booming in Australia - but at what cost?”, in BBC News, retrieved 04 Sep 2026

2. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Russell County, Kentucky, United States.