whittles

Verb

whittle (third-person singular simple present whittles, present participle whittling, simple past and past participle whittled)

1. (intransitive, transitive) To 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. (transitive) To reduce or gradually eliminate something (such as a debt).
3. (figuratively, transitive) To make eager or excited; to excite with liquor; to inebriate.
   • When men are well whitled, their toungs run at randome1554, John Withals, A Dictionarie in English and Latine

See all 10 meanings of whittle