thwittle

English edit

Etymology edit

From Middle English thwitel, equivalent to thwite +‎ -le.

Verb edit

thwittle (third-person singular simple present thwittles, present participle thwittling, simple past and past participle thwittled)

(obsolete) To cut or whittle.
- 1688, John Sergeant, Five Catholick Letters […] :
  your Absolute Certainty would be thwittled into sufficient Certainty

Noun edit

thwittle (plural thwittles)

(obsolete) A small knife; a whittle.
- 1675, Lucian of Samosata, translated by Charles Cotton, Burlesque upon burlesque, page 32:
  Merc.
  […] And that in Jove's great dining Room,
  We were with each one a good thwittle
  Again set down to swill, and vittle,
  Provided (Signior) do you see,
  That you should not the Carver be […]
- 1822, William Bennett, Malpas, volume 1, pages 300–301:
  “Marry, what is't?” cried one fellow […] “Is't a thwittle shaft?”
  “Ay, or it may be the half of a shuttle,” said another; “dost note, it tapers to the end, and is biggest i' the middle? I warrant Saint Dunstan was a clothier, and made many an ell of stout broella.”
  “'Tis more like he was a butcher,” cried one of that fraternity, “if ye go by likes; for 'tis the very model of a thwittle shaft, and white ash to boot.”
- 1879, Edwin Waugh, “The Swallowed Sixpence”, in The Chimney Corner, page 44:
  The butcher stood in the door-way, beating time with his thwittle, and humming […]

References edit

“thwittle”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.