Meaning & use
Whittle
Last updated
To carve or shape wood by slicing off small pieces with a knife, or, figuratively, to gradually reduce something in size or amount.
See it in a sentence
He spent the evening whittling a small bird out of a block of pine.
The committee slowly whittled the list of candidates down to just three.
A note on using this word
The figurative sense, "whittle down," describes a gradual reduction, much like shaving thin slices off a piece of wood.
Words with a similar meaning
carvepare down
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
Words with an opposite meaning
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