c900 tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. iv. xxxi Ða eode þes broðor sume dæge þæt he wolde his reon & his hwitlas [saga]..in sæ wæscan.

c1000 Ælfric Genesis ix. 23 Sem and Iafeth dydon anne hwitel [L. pallium] on hira sculdra.

?c1225 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 159 Ba..schule beon of wurmes his cuuertur & his hwitel.

a1300 Walter of Henley's Husb. (1890) 4 Wo þat strechet forþerre þan his wytel wyle reche in þe straue his fet he mot streche.

1393 W. Langland Piers Plowman C. xvii. 76 When he streyneþ hym to strecche, þe straw is hus whitel.

1422 Will of John Olney (P.R.O.: PROB. 11/2B) f. 433 j wytele & j chete.

1565 T. Cooper Thesaurus Crepundia,..the first apparayle of children, as, swathes, whittels, wastecoates, and such lyke.

1668 in Alice M. Earle Costume Colon. Times (1894) 257 A whittle that was fringed.

1697 in C. Worthy Devonshire Wills (1896) 214 To sister, Rachel Tucker, my largest red whittle.

1700 J. Brome Trav. iii. 234 The [Devonshire] Women have a peculiar sort of Garment, which they wear upon their Shoulders called Whittles, they are like Mantles with fringes about the edges.

1755 Connoisseur No. 80. ⁋7 As great a store of caps, clouts, biggens, belly-bands, whittles, and all kinds of childbed-linnen, as would set up a Lying-in Hospital.

1850 F. E. Smedley Frank Fairlegh xiv. 129 I sought out the..old lady, whose shawl I had so unceremoniously made use of [to extinguish fire]... I believe..she considered Miss Saville's safety dearly purchased at the expense of her favourite whittle.

1871 Mrs. H. Wood Dene Hollow xxiv In a coarse red shawl—or, as it was called then, ‘whittle’,..Emma Geash started.

1404 in W. H. Stevenson Rec. Borough Nottingham (1883) II. 22 j. whyttel, j d.

14.. Stockholm Med. MS. i. 446 in Anglia XVIII. 306 Schrape of þe ouerest bark with a qwetyll.

c1530 A. Barclay Egloges iii. sig. Miv The scolyons,..Came some with whytles, some other with flesshe hokes.

a1586 Sir P. Sidney Arcadia (1590) iii. xiii. sig. Qq4^v He thought best..with a great whittle he had..to cut his throate, which he had vsed so with Calues, as he had no small dexteritie in it.

1592 R. Greene Vision sig. C A whittell by his belt he beare.

a1619 E. M. Wingfield Disc. Virginia in Trans. Amer. Antiq. Soc. (1860) 4 99 No penny whitle was asked me, but a kniffe, whereof I had none to spare.

1653 T. Gataker Vindic. Annot. Jer. 10.2 136 We shall not need to borrow great Alexanders whiniard to cut this Gordian knot asunder, any sory whittle will serve the turn.

1671 J. Dryden Evening's Love iv. 70 Here's the sixpenny whittle you gave me, with the Mutton haft: I can spare it, for knives are of little use in Spain.

1724 A. Ramsay Tea-table Misc. (1733) II. 181 A rousty whittle to sheer the kail.

1803 Gazetteer Scotl. at Kilmaurs The knives were so much famed, that a Kilmaur's [sic] whittle became proverbial.

1821 W. Scott Kenilworth III. ii. 23 Beshrew me,..but thou art sharper than a Sheffield whittle! [Cf. quot. c1386 at thwittle n.]

1841 T. Parker Crit. & Misc. Writ. (1848) v. 117 He wears a beaver hat, and a coat of English cloth, and has a Birmingham whittle, and a watch in his pocket.

1853 G. J. Cayley Las Alforjas I. 61 In the fingers of his right [hand] was a crooked whittle, with which..as the basketfuls arrived, he would nick the score upon notch-sticks.

1804 R. Anderson et al. Ballads in Cumberland Dial. (1805) 144 In some parts of Cumberland..he not only receives quarter-pence, but is provided with victuals at the homes of his scholars, which he visits in succession. This whittle-gait (as it is called) subjects him however to the toil of travelling.

1825 J. T. Brockett Gloss. North Country Words (at cited word) ‘An harden sark, a guse grassing, and a whittle gait’, were all the salary of a clergyman, not many years ago, in Cumberland.

1736 Philos. Trans. 1735–6 (Royal Soc.) 39 76 The Whittle-Knife, with the Box-Handle.

a1811 J. Leyden tr. Malay Ann. (1821) 54 In his hand was a whittle knife without the haft.

a1614 J. Melville Autobiogr. & Diary (1842) 366 We feill mair a whittell in our fingar nor the helthe of the haill body.

1774 J. Maclaurin Arguments & Decisions Remarkable Cases 94 A distemper incident to the thumb, vulgarly called the whittle.

1756 C. Lucas Ess. Waters ii. 66 Sea-water..relieves whittle-flaws before they exulcerate.

1825 J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. Suppl. Whuttle-grass, Meliot, Trifolium M. officinalis Linn...; called also Kings-clover.

1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 500 Whan he is well whyttelled, he wyll crake goodly of his manhode, quant il a bien beu [etc.].

1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 844 Well whytled, nere dronken.

1543 T. Becon Invect. against Swearing 24 Whan they are once set vpon the ale benche, and well whytled in theyr braynes thorow the many cuppes that haue bene fylled in.

?1567 Merie Tales Master Skelton sig. Biiii^v Skelton did fill all the cuppes..and whitled the frere.

1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World I. xiv. xxii. 427 When they..be throughly whitled,..then..the secrets of the heart are opened.

1652 T. Urquhart Εκσκυβαλαυρον 126 Drinking healths,..whitling themselves with Septembral juyce.

1694 P. A. Motteux tr. F. Rabelais 5th Bk. Wks. Pantagr. Prognost. 236 Whittled, Mellow, Cupshotten Swillers.

1593 G. Harvey Pierces Supererogation 44 What? gorge vpon gorge, egges vpon egges, and sacke vpon sacke..? Such egging and whitling may happen bring you acquainted with the triumphant chariot of rotten egges.

1792 G. Cartwright Jrnl. III. p. x Whittled-sticks, sticks from which beavers have eaten the bark.

1883 J. Gilmour Among Mongols xxi. 267 The bow..was a bent and whittled branch of some shrub.

1961 A. Brownjohn in E. Lucie-Smith Brit. Poetry since 1945 (1970) 266 Farmers call hillocks And ponds..By the first words to hand; a heavy, whittled-down Simplicity meets the need.

1962 E. Snow Other Side of River (1963) xxiv. 183 If any of these somewhat blind guesses are right, the whittled-down results still remain impressive.

1980 M. Booth Bad Track ii. 34 Long streets with a whittled-down green, a church..a pub.

1839 F. Marryat Diary in Amer. I. 236 In some courts they put sticks before noted whittlers to save the furniture.

1907 Elem. School Teacher Mar. 393 No one thinks of denying him the pocket-knife because of the fear that its use will result in his becoming a mere whittler.

1614 S. Purchas Pilgrimage (ed. 2) iv. v. 364 He spent the time in whitling with a knife.

1839 F. Marryat Diary in Amer. II. 4 Each knife having two pen-blades, one whittling blade.

1854 C. Greatrex (title) Whittlings from the West.

1875 W. D. Howells Foregone Concl. iii. 61 Litter of shavings and whittlings strewed the floor.

1885 R. A. Proctor How to play Whist Pref. 10 The Whist Whittlings include Whist stories, maxims, notes.

1849 C. J. Lever Confess. Con Cregan xx I am no lazy,..whittling, tobacco-chewing Texan!

1735 J. Swift Clever Tom Clinch in Wks. II. 299 Tom..said, I must speak to the People a little, But I'll see you all damn'd before I will whittle.

1874 Hotten's Slang Dict. (rev. ed.) 340 Whittle, to nose or peach.