to cut, trim, or shape (a stick, piece of wood, etc.) by carving off bits with a knife.
2.
to form by whittling: to whittle a figure.
3.
to cut off (a bit).
4.
to reduce the amount of, as if by whittling; pare down; take away by degrees (usually fol. by down, away, etc.): to whittle down the company's overhead; to whittle away one's inheritance.
–verb (used without object)
5.
to whittle wood or the like with a knife, as in shaping something or as a mere aimless diversion: to spend an afternoon whittling.
6.
to tire oneself or another by worrying or fussing.
–noun
7.
BritishDialect. a knife, esp. a large one, as a carving knife or a butcher knife.
[Origin: 1375–1425; late ME (n.), dial. var. of thwitel knife, OE thwīt(an) to cut + -el-le]
1552, "to cut thin shavings from (something) with a knife," from M.E. whittel "a knife" (1404), variant of thwittle (1390), from O.E. þwitan "to cut," from P.Gmc. *thwitanan (cf. O.N. þveita "to hew"). Fig. sense is attested from 1746.
WhittleAudio Help (wĭt'l) Pronunciation Key
British aeronautical engineer and inventor who developed the first aircraft engine powered by jet propulsion in 1937.
Thwite\, v. t. [AS. [thorn]w[=i]tan. See Whittle, and cf. Thwaite a piece of land.] To cut or clip with a knife; to whittle. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] --Chaucer.
Whit"tle\, n. [AS. hw[=i]tel, from hwit white; akin to Icel. hv[=i]till a white bed cover. See White.] (a) A grayish, coarse double blanket worn by countrywomen, in the west of England, over the shoulders, like a cloak or shawl. --C. Kingsley. (b) Same as Whittle shawl, below. Whittle shawl, a kind of fine woolen shawl, originally and especially a white one.