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Engrave vs Whittle - What's the difference?

engrave | whittle |

As verbs the difference between engrave and whittle

is that engrave is while whittle is (transitive|or|intransitive) to cut or shape wood with a knife.

As a noun whittle is

a knife; especially, a pocket knife, sheath knife, or clasp knife or whittle can be (archaic) a coarse greyish double blanket worn by countrywomen, in the west of england, over the shoulders, like a cloak or shawl.

engrave

English

Alternative forms

* (l)

Etymology 1

From earlier ingrave, equivalent to . More at (l).

Verb

(engrav)
  • (lb) 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. ΒΆ ("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."
  • (lb) To carve (something) into a material.
  • :
  • Synonyms
    * carve, etch, inscribe

    Etymology 2

    From .

    Verb

    (engrav)
  • (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

    * ----

    whittle

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A knife; especially, a pocket knife, sheath knife, or clasp knife.
  • * Dryden
  • A butcher's whittle .
  • * Macaulay
  • Rude whittles .
  • * Betterton
  • He wore a Sheffield whittle in his hose.

    Verb

    (whittl)
  • (transitive, or, intransitive) To cut or shape wood with a knife.
  • To reduce or gradually eliminate something (such as a debt).
  • (figurative) To make eager or excited; to excite with liquor; to inebriate.
  • * Withals
  • When men are well whittled , their tongues run at random.
    Derived terms
    * whittle down * whittling

    Etymology 2

    From an (etyl) word for "white"; akin to an Icelandic word for a white bedcover.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (archaic) A coarse greyish double blanket worn by countrywomen, in the west of England, over the shoulders, like a cloak or shawl.
  • (Charles Kingsley)
  • (archaic) A whittle shawl; a kind of fine woollen shawl, originally and especially a white one.
  • References

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