Whittling

Quick meaning: Whittling is a verb meaning present participle and gerund of whittle.

Meaning

present participle and gerund of whittle.

More Meanings

1. (usually in the plural) A chip or shaving whittled from some larger substance.
2. The art of carving shapes out of raw wood using a knife.
3. A process of repeatedly shaving slivers from a piece of wood (non-artistic).
4. (figurative, by extension) The reducing of something by degrees, especially at the expense of some effort.

Example Sentences

a whittling down

Result: nothing would prevent the rapid destruction of the Deco District. Already the developers are calling for a whittling down of the original square mile to a few blocks. The few blocks will no doubt be whittled down to one building, and in the end all that will be left will be a Deco mailbox well pissed on by the local dogs. In another era it was called salami tactics.

Word Forms

• whittlings

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include pare, whisket, cutting, whet, whisker, whetting.

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