whittle off

См. также в других словарях:

• whittle — ► VERB 1) carve (wood) by repeatedly cutting small slices from it. 2) make by whittling. 3) (whittle away/down) reduce by degrees. ORIGIN from dialect whittle «knife», from an Old English word meaning «cut, cut off» …   English terms dictionary

• Whittle — Whit tle, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Whittled}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Whittling}.] [1913 Webster] 1. 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. [1913… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

• Whittle, Sir Frank — born June 1, 1907, Coventry, Warwickshire, Eng. died Aug. 8, 1996, Columbia, Md., U.S. British aviation engineer and pilot who invented the jet engine. He obtained his first patent for a turbojet engine in 1930, and in 1936 he cofounded Power… …   Universalium

• Whittle-le-Woods — infobox UK place latitude= 53.691389 longitude= 2.640775 official name= Whittle le Woods map type= Lancashire population= 4,553 (2001 Census) os grid reference= SD577218 civil parish= Whittle le Woods shire district= Chorley shire county=… …   Wikipedia

• whittle — whittler, n. /hwit l, wit l/, v., whittled, whittling, n. v.t. 1. 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 …   Universalium

• whittle — [c]/ˈwɪtl / (say witl) verb (whittled, whittling) –verb (t) 1. to cut, trim, or shape (a stick, piece of wood, etc.) by taking off bits with a knife. 2. to cut off (a bit or bits). –verb (i) 3. to cut bits or chips from wood or the like with a… …  

• whittle — whit|tle [ˈwıtl] v [Date: 1500 1600; Origin: whittle large knife (15 19 centuries), from thwittle (14 19 centuries), from thwite to whittle (11 19 centuries), from Old English thwitan] 1.) also whittle down [T] to gradually make something smaller …   Dictionary of contemporary English

• whittle — UK [ˈwɪt(ə)l] / US / US [ˈhwɪt(ə)l] verb [intransitive/transitive] Word forms whittle : present tense I/you/we/they whittle he/she/it whittles present participle whittling past tense whittled past participle whittled to make an object out of wood …   English dictionary

• whittle — I. noun Etymology: Middle English whittel, alteration of thwitel, from thwiten to whittle, from Old English thwītan; akin to Old Norse thveita to hew Date: 15th century archaic a large knife II. verb (whittled; whittling) Date: 1552 …   New Collegiate Dictionary

• whittle — whit•tle [[t]ˈ(h)wɪt l, ˈwɪt l[/t]] v. tled, tling, n. 1) to cut, trim, or shape (a piece of wood or the like) by carving off bits with a knife 2) to form by whittling 3) to cut off (a bit) 4) to reduce the amount of gradually (usu. fol. by down …   From formal English to slang

• whittle — whit|tle [ wıtl, hwıtl ] verb transitive to make an object out of wood by cutting pieces off the wood with a small knife ,whittle a way phrasal verb intransitive or transitive to gradually reduce the amount or importance of something: The team… …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English