Slowly cutting away small pieces from wood or another material with a knife to shape it into something.
From Middle English 'thwittel' (a knife for cutting), possibly related to 'white' (from Old English 'hwit'). The name might mean a 'white knife' or light-colored cutting tool.
Whittling is one of the oldest art forms — archaeologists have found whittled bone and stone tools from over 100,000 years ago, so humans have been shaping materials with cutting tools since before we had languages.
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