whittle
意味
- 〈木材〉をナイフで少しずつ削る,そぐ
- 木片などを削って…を作る
- …を削減する,減らす《+away(down)+名,+名+away(down)》
- ナイフで木を削る,木を刻む
例文
Lack of sleep whittled away her energy.
寝不足で彼女は元気がなかった。
He whittled the stick to a sharp point with his hunting knife.
彼はその棒切れを狩猟ナイフで削り尖らせた。
語源
英語の原文（Wiktionary）
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.