v. Obs. exc. dial. Forms: 1 þwitan, þweoton; 4–7 thwyte, (7– dial.) thwite, (4–5 twhyte, 5 twyte, 6 thwight, 9 dial. tweet, twet, toight). Pa. pple. 4–5 thwyten, 6 thwytten, thweten, 6–7 thwitten; 5–7 thwyted, 6–7 thwitted, 5– thwited. See also WHITE v. [OE. þrítan (*þwát, þwiten) to cut, cut off; not recorded elsewhere; but ON. had derivatives in þveita small ax, þvita a kind of ax, þveit, þveiti cut-off piece, parcel of land, THWAIT(E. In mod.Sc. and north. dial. the word has become quhyte, hwite, WHITE, in Aberdeen fite. See also THWITTLE, WHITTLE.]
trans. To cut down, whittle, pare, shave; to shape by paring; to cut away, Also fig. Phrase, To thwite a mill-post (etc.) to a pudding-prick.
a. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., III. xiv. [xvii.] (1890), 204. ʓe[a] eac swylce of þære ilcan styðe sponas þweoton & sceafþan nomon [v.r. ðæt ʓeþwit naman].
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 292. ʓenim þone neowran wyrttruman delf up, þwit niʓon sponas on ða winstran hand.
a. 1366[?]. Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 933. That other bowe … was peynted wel and thwyten [MS. twythen, Thynne thwitten]. Ibid. (c. 1384), H. Fame, III. 848. Somme [twigs] weren white Whiche as men to these cages thwite [v.rr. thwyte, twhyte] Or maken of these panyers.
a. 1500. in Arnolde, Chron. (1811), 170. The ende of the graff that was vpward next the firmament must be thweten lyke the neder or a comon graffe.
1529. More, Dyaloge, III. Wks. 236/2. Here was a gret post wel thwyted to a pudding pricke.
1575. Brieff Disc. Troub. Franckford (1846), 157. It nippeth and thwitethe awaie a great deale off that liberalitie, which might come to us.
a. 1601. Sir T. Fanshawe, Pract. Exch. (1658), 112. The Cutter of the Tallyes … provideth a … hasell for the Tallies … and doth somewhat thwite every stick thereof into four square sides.
1674. Ray, N. C. Words, To Thwite, to whittle, cut, make white by cutting.
1897. Shetland News, 24 July (E.D.D.). A placid roadman ‘tweetin’ the grass in the ditches with a scythe.
b. intr. To whittle. Now dial.
c. 1475. Babees Bk., I. 179. Kutte nouhte youre mete eke as it were Felde men … They ne rekke … how vngoodly they on theyre mete twyte.
1863. Lanc. Fents, New Shirt, 5. After ‘thwiting’ at the topmost bar of the gate till he bad made it look almost like a new one.
1870. E. Waugh, Winter Fire, iii. 24. Let these lads thwite at it [beef] a bit.
Hence Thwiting vbl. sb.; thwiting-knife, ? a paring or scraping knife used by bowyers.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. IX. 199. In þresshynge, in þecchyng, in thwytynge of pynnes.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 493/1. Thwytynge, or telwynge, sectulatus, abscidula, abscindula.
1659. Howell, Vocab., li. A thwitting knife, nocksaws, a rasp, a riper, a share, a baldock, &c., gli stromenti dell arciero [the tools of the bowyer].
