whittle (whittles 3rd person present) (whittling present participle) (whittled past tense & past participle )If you whittle something from a piece of wood, you carve it by cutting pieces off the wood with a knife. verb
He whittled a new handle for his ax... V n whittle away phrasal verb To whittle away something or whittle away at it means to gradually make it smaller, weaker, or less effective.