Klryz
Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iːseeɪsite / ɛbedæcat
ɑːfatherɒhot (UK)ɔːlawʊput
uːtooʌcupɜːbirdəabout
eɪdayaɪmyɔɪboyaʊnow
əʊ / oʊgo (UK / US)ɪəneareəhairʊətour

Consonants that look unusual

θthinðthisʃsheʒmeasure
tʃchurchdʒjudgeŋsingjyes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

Marks

  • ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
  • ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

Common word endings

  • -s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
  • -ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
  • -ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
  • Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
  • Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

English Dictionary · 107,383 entries · Sources & licences

whittle

/ˈwɪtəl/ noun, verb, proper noun

Forms whittles whittling whittled

  1. noun A knife; especially, a clasp-knife, pocket knife, or sheath knife.
  2. verb (transitive or intransitive) To cut or shape wood with a knife.
  3. verb (transitive) To reduce or gradually eliminate something (such as a debt).
  4. verb (transitive, figurative) To make eager or excited; to excite with liquor; to inebriate.
  5. noun A covering for a bed; sheet.
  6. noun A coarse greyish double blanket worn over the shoulders, like a cloak or shawl.
  7. noun A kind of fine woollen shawl, originally and especially a white one.
  8. noun (dialectal) A baby's flannel; a baby's woollen napkin; a flannel petticoat.
  9. proper noun A surname.
  10. proper noun An unincorporated community in Russell County, Kentucky, United States.

Synonyms

cape mantle whittle shawl Frank Whittle Sir Frank Whittle pare

Etymology

From Middle English whittel (“large knife”), an alteration of thwitel, itself from thwiten (“to whittle”), from Old English þwītan (“to strike down, whittle”), from Proto-Germanic *þwītaną, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *twey- (“to shake, hurl, toss”). Compare Old Norse þveita (“to hurl”), Ancient Greek σείω (seíō, “I shake”). Related to thwite and thwaite.

From Middle English whytel, from Old English hwītel (“cloak, blanket”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwītil, from Proto-Germanic *hwītilaz, equivalent to white + -le; akin to Icelandic hvítill (“white bedcover, sheet, linen”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A knife; esp., a pocket, sheath, or clasp knife. "A butcher's whittle." Dryden. "Rude whittles." Macaulay.
  2. verb To pare or cut off the surface of with a small knife; to cut or shape, as a piece of wood held in the hand, with a clasp knife or pocketknife.
  3. verb To edge; to sharpen; to render eager or excited; esp., to excite with liquor; to inebriate. [Obs.]
  4. verb To cut or shape a piece of wood with am small knife; to cut up a piece of wood with a knife.

Etymology [AS. hwitel, from hwit white; akin to Icel. hvitill a white bed cover. See White.]

Etymology [OE. thwitel, fr. AS. pwitan to cut. Cf. Thwittle, Thwaite a piece of ground.]

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “whittle”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details