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to whittle
01
to carve or shape small pieces from a material, usually wood, using a knife or similar tool
Transitive: to whittle an object or shape | to whittle a piece of wood into an object or shape
Grammatical Information
Composition
Simple
Action verb
Regular
Present tense
whittle
3rd person singular
whittles
Present participle
whittling
Past simple
whittled
Past participle
whittled
Examples
The grandfather whittled a small figurine from a block of wood.
02
to gradually reduce something in size or number
Transitive: to whittle size or number of something
Examples
To save space, she decides to whittle her collection of ornaments.
Lexical Tree
whittler
whittle
