whittle, a small clasp-knife. Timon, v. 1. 183; Middleton, The Widow, iii. 2 (Francisco). In gen. prov. use in this sense, see EDD. (s.v. Whittle, sb.1 1). ME. thwitel, a knife (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3933), deriv. of thwiten, to pare or cut little pieces from a thing; OE. þwītan, to cut out, cognate with Icel. þveit, a piece of land, common in place-names in the north of England, e.g. Seathwaite, Langthwaite, Postlethwaite.
whittled, drunk, intoxicated. Lyly, Mother Bombie, iii. 2 (Lucio); whitled, Gascoigne, ed. Hazlitt, i. 498, l. 4. See Nares. Given as an obsolete prov. word in use in the north of England (EDD.). Cp. the slang term ‘cut’ for tipsy, somewhat drunk, see EDD. (s.v. Cut, ppl. adj.).
whome, home; ‘He wil paye whome’, Latimer, pref. to 2 Sermon bef. King (ed. Arber, p. 48). So pronounced in Wilts. and Shropshire; in north Devon ‘whum’, see EDD. (s.v. Home).
whoobub, hubbub. Wint. Tale, iv. 4. 629; Two Noble Kinsmen, ii. 5. (or 6) 35; whobub, Beaumont and Fl., iv. 1 (Soto).
whoop!, an exclamation. King Lear, i. 4. 245; Hence, to whoop, ‘The shepheard whoop’d for joy’, Drayton, Shepherd’s Garland; ‘We are whoop’d’ (i.e. cried ‘whoop’ upon), Fletcher, Maid in a Mill, iii. 2 (Franio).
whoorlbat; see [whirlbat].
whorry; see [whirry].
who-some-ere, whosoever. Greene, Alphonsus, i. 1. 15. So also where-some-ere, wheresoever, id., i. 2. 6. A parallel formation to whosoever, with the Icel. conj. sem (Norw. dial., Danish and Swedish som), as, that, sec EDD. (s.v. Howsomever).
whot, whott, hot. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 58; ii. 5. 18.
whule, to cry plaintively, to whine, howl. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xii. 135; Palsgrave, p. 785. A Suffolk word, see EDD. (s.v. Whewl).