different between engrave vs whittle

English

Alternative forms

• ingrave

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n???e?v/
• Rhymes: -e?v
• Hyphenation: en?grave

Etymology 1

From earlier ingrave, equivalent to en- +? grave (“to carve, engrave”). More at grave.

Verb

engrave (third-person singular simple present engraves, present participle engraving, simple past and past participle engraved)

1. (transitive) To carve text or symbols into (something), usually for the purposes of identification or art.

   • Elbows almost touching they leaned at ease, idly reading the almost obliterated lines engraved there. ¶ "I never understood it," she observed, lightly scornful. "What occult meaning has a sun-dial for the spooney? I'm sure I don't want to read riddles in a strange gentleman's optics."

2. (transitive) To carve (something) into a material.

Conjugation

Synonyms

• (carve (text or symbols) into): carve, etch, inscribe

Translations

Etymology 2

From en- +? grave.

Verb

engrave (third-person singular simple present engraves, present participle engraving, simple past and past participle engraved)

1. (obsolete) To put in a grave, to bury.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.i:

     So both agree their bodies to engraue; / The great earthes wombe they open to the sky [...].

Anagrams

• Grevena, avenger, vernage

French

Verb

engrave

1. first-person singular present indicative of engraver
2. third-person singular present indicative of engraver
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of engraver
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of engraver
5. second-person singular imperative of engraver

Anagrams

• vengera

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???t?l/, /?w?t?l/
• Rhymes: -?t?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English whittel (“large knife”), an alteration of thwitel, itself from thwiten (“to whittle”), from Old English þw?tan (“to strike down, whittle”), from Proto-Germanic *þw?tan?, from Proto-Indo-European *tweys- (“to shake, hurl, toss”). Compare Old Norse þveita (“to hurl”), Ancient Greek ???? (seí?, “I shake”). Related to thwite and thwaite.

Noun

whittle (plural whittles)

1. A knife; especially, a pocket knife, sheath knife, or clasp knife.
   • 1682, John Dryden and Nathaniel Lee, The Duke of Guise

     A butcher's whittle.

   • 1873, Alfred Gatty, Sheffield: past and present

     The Sheffield whittle was the common knife of the country , which every one carried for general purposes , who was not entitled by rank to wear a sword

Translations

Verb

whittle (third-person singular simple present whittles, present participle whittling, simple past and past participle whittled)

1. (transitive or intransitive) To cut or shape wood with a knife.
2. (transitive) To reduce or gradually eliminate something (such as a debt).
3. (transitive, figuratively) To make eager or excited; to excite with liquor; to inebriate.
   • 1554, John Withals, A Dictionarie in English and Latine

     When men are well whitled, their toungs run at randome

Derived terms

• whittle down
• whittling

Translations

Etymology 2

From Old English hwitel, equivalent to white +? -le; akin to an Icelandic word for a white bedcover.

Noun

whittle (plural whittles)

1. (archaic) A coarse greyish double blanket worn by countrywomen, in the west of England, over the shoulders, like a cloak or shawl.
   • 1857, Charles Kingsley, Two Years Ago

     Her figure is tall , graceful , and slight ; the severity of its outlines suiting well with the severity of her dress , with the brown stuff gown , and plain gray whittle

2. (archaic) A whittle shawl; a kind of fine woollen shawl, originally and especially a white one.

References

• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “whittle”, in Online Etymology Dictionary
• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.