thwitel

Middle English

Noun

thwitel

1. a small knife; a whittle
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Reues Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC:

     A Sheffeld thwitel baar he in his hose.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

References

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