fritter away

phrasal verb

frittered away; frittering away; fritters away

: to spend or use up (something) in a slow and usually foolish way

He frittered the afternoon away.

He frittered away his fortune on gambling.

Examples of fritter away in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Instead of an airport lounge, travelers can also fritter away the hours before a flight at a nearby gym, pool, or spa. —Melanie Lieberman, Travel + Leisure, 22 Feb. 2018

Anymore Over the subsequent decades, the United States seemed to fritter away both the goodwill needed to support such efforts and the means to carry them out. —Paul Poast, The Atlantic, 17 Nov. 2023

The hedge fund’s manna was slowly being frittered away, a casualty yet again of Dalio’s latest predictions of trouble for the global economy. —Rob Copeland, Fortune, 11 Nov. 2023

Three weeks on, the Republicans have been frittering away their majority status — a maddening embarrassment to some, democracy in action to others, but not at all how the House is expected to function. —Lisa Mascaro, Fortune, 25 Oct. 2023

Overwhelmed and exhausted, anxious GOP lawmakers worry their House majority is being frittered away to countless rounds of infighting and some don’t want to reward Jordan’s wing, which sparked the turmoil. —Lisa Mascaro, Fortune, 13 Oct. 2023

After frittering away a few hundred million dollars, Lordstown has built a grand total of 31 painfully uncompetitive trucks. —IEEE Spectrum, 2 June 2023

Old-school golf trips were a handy way to ditch the spouse and fritter away a week with like-minded monomaniacs. —David Weiss, wsj.com, 4 May 2023