The new president wants to whittle down spending on health care to a bare minimum.
Source: tatoeba (2015707)
Whittle
//ˈʍɪtəl//
Synonyms for "whittle" (57 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (12)
Strong matches (17)
Related words (28)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
More general
1 entriesSynonyms
1 entriesderived
5 entriesmanner of
1 entriesrelated to
12 entriesTranslations
57 translations across 17 languages.
Ancient Greek
1 entries- ξυήλη noun (knife)
Bulgarian
3 entries- касапски нож noun (knife)
- дялам verb (cut or shape wood with a knife)
- издялвам verb (cut or shape wood with a knife)
Chinese Mandarin
4 entries- 刻刀 noun (knife)
- 凿 verb (cut or shape wood with a knife)
- 刻 verb (cut or shape wood with a knife)
- 削 verb (cut or shape wood with a knife)
Czech
4 entries- omezit verb (reduce or gradually eliminate something)
- ořezat verb (cut or shape wood with a knife)
- ořezat verb (reduce or gradually eliminate something)
- ořezávat verb (cut or shape wood with a knife)
Dutch
4 entries- (groot) mes noun (knife)
- aanspitsen verb (cut or shape wood with a knife)
- afknagen verb (reduce or gradually eliminate something)
- kerven verb (cut or shape wood with a knife)
Finnish
4 entries- leuku noun (knife)
- karsia verb (reduce or gradually eliminate something)
- leikata verb (reduce or gradually eliminate something)
- veistää verb (cut or shape wood with a knife)
French
1 entries- tailler verb (cut or shape wood with a knife)
German
2 entries- schnitzen verb (cut or shape wood with a knife)
- wegschnibbeln verb (reduce or gradually eliminate something)
Hungarian
4 entries- mészároskés noun (knife)
- nagy kés noun (knife)
- csökkent verb (reduce or gradually eliminate something)
- farag verb (cut or shape wood with a knife)
Italian
1 entries- intagliare verb (cut or shape wood with a knife)
Norwegian
1 entries- spikke verb (cut or shape wood with a knife)
Polish
3 entries- scyzoryk noun (knife)
- wyrzeźbić verb (cut or shape wood with a knife)
- wystrugać verb (cut or shape wood with a knife)
Russian
4 entries- большо́й нож noun (knife)
- выреза́ть verb (cut or shape wood with a knife)
- выстру́гивать verb (cut or shape wood with a knife)
- своди́ть на нет verb (reduce or gradually eliminate something)
Spanish
2 entries- tallar verb (cut or shape wood with a knife)
- tallar verb (reduce or gradually eliminate something)
Swedish
2 entries- karva verb (cut or shape wood with a knife)
- tälja verb (cut or shape wood with a knife)
Ukrainian
2 entries- ви́стругати verb (cut or shape wood with a knife)
- струга́ти verb (cut or shape wood with a knife)
Vietnamese
2 entries- gọt verb (cut or shape wood with a knife)
- vót verb (cut or shape wood with a knife)
Sample sentences
14 total sentences available.
Frank Whittle, a British pilot, designed and patented the first turbo jet engine in 1930.
Source: tatoeba (5325852)
At the same time that Whittle was working in England, Hans von Ohain was working on a similar design in Germany. The first airplane to successfully use a gas turbine engine was the German Heinkel He 178, in August, 1939. It was the world's first turbojet powered flight.
Source: tatoeba (5325853)
As a general rule, one should not whittle sticks in the dark.
Source: tatoeba (6604543)
Showing 4 of 14 available sentences.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.