MEANING
1. To carve by removing small pieces with a knife.
2. To reduce a quantity or range through successive small removals.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- whittle wood
- whittle a figure
On the page
He whittled the branch into a crude handle.
Word forms
- Base
- whittle
- Past tense
- whittled
- Past participle
- whittled
- Present participle
- whittling
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- whittle
- Present continuous
- am/is/are whittling
- Present perfect
- have/has whittled
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been whittling
- Past
- whittled
- Past continuous
- was/were whittling
- Past perfect
- had whittled
- Past perfect continuous
- had been whittling
- Future
- will whittle
- Future continuous
- will be whittling
- Future perfect
- will have whittled
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been whittling
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Primary category: literary / elevated general. Forms: whittle; whittles; whittled; whittled; whittling Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: description, character, dialogue. Commonness: moderately common. Third-person singular: whittles.
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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