whittle

Etymology 1

From Middle English whittel (“large knife”), an alteration of thwitel, itself from thwiten (“to whittle”), from Old English þwītan (“to strike down, whittle”), from Proto-Germanic *þwītaną, from Proto-Indo-European *tweys- (“to shake, hurl, toss”). Compare Old Norse þveita (“to hurl”), Ancient Greek σείω (seíō, “I shake”). Related to thwite and thwaite.

noun

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

verb

1. (transitive or intransitive) To cut or shape wood with a knife.
2. (transitive) To reduce or gradually eliminate something (such as a debt).
3. (transitive, figurative) To 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

Etymology 2

From Middle English whytel, from Old English hwītel (“cloak, blanket”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwītil, from Proto-Germanic *hwītilaz, equivalent to white + -le; akin to Icelandic hvítill (“white bedcover, sheet, linen”).

noun

1. (archaic) A coarse greyish double blanket worn by countrywomen, in the west of England, over the shoulders, like a cloak or shawl.
2. (archaic) A whittle shawl; a kind of fine woollen shawl, originally and especially a white one.