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From: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

 Whis·tle, n.
 1. A sharp, shrill, more or less musical sound, made by forcing the breath through a small orifice of the lips, or through or instrument which gives a similar sound; the sound used by a sportsman in calling his dogs; the shrill note of a bird; as, the sharp whistle of a boy, or of a boatswain's pipe; the blackbird's mellow whistle.
 Might we but hear
 The folded flocks, penned in their wattled cotes, . . .
 Or whistle from the lodge.   --Milton.
    The countryman could not forbear smiling, . . . and by that means lost his whistle.   --Spectator.
    They fear his whistle, and forsake the seas.   --Dryden.
 2. The shrill sound made by wind passing among trees or through crevices, or that made by bullet, or the like, passing rapidly through the air; the shrill noise (much used as a signal, etc.) made by steam or gas escaping through a small orifice, or impinging against the edge of a metallic bell or cup.
 3. An instrument in which gas or steam forced into a cavity, or against a thin edge, produces a sound more or less like that made by one who whistles through the compressed lips; as, a child's whistle; a boatswain's whistle; a steam whistle (see Steam whistle, under Steam).
    The bells she jingled, and the whistle blew.   --Pope.
 4. The mouth and throat; -- so called as being the organs of whistling.  [Colloq.]
    So was her jolly whistle well ywet.   --Chaucer.
    Let's drink the other cup to wet our whistles.   --Walton.
 Whistle duck Zool., the American golden-eye.