make/put a dent

idiom

: to decrease something slightly or to make something somewhat weaker

We tried our best to fix the problem, but nothing we did seems to have made a dent.

—often + in

It's going to take more than a new law to make a dent in the city's drug crime.

a vacation that won't put too big a dent in your wallet

Examples of make/put a dent in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The discovery helped the Naples resident land first place in the 2025 Florida Python Challenge, which drew 934 hunters competing to make a dent in the state’s invasive Burmese python population, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission announced Aug. 13. —Miami Herald, 15 Aug. 2025

While any revenue can help the government fiscally, tariff revenue will barely make a dent in that total. —Danielle Kurtzleben, NPR, 11 Aug. 2025

The excerpt alleged that Fergie was able to make a dent in her debts around 1997, paying it down with the advance from her memoirs, money from her deal with WeightWatchers, six interviews with Paris Match and almost $400,000 for two children's books. —Janine Henni, People.com, 5 Aug. 2025

Charlotte has tried to make a dent in the college football world in several different ways and none of them have really worked out — the most recent foray was The Great Biff Poggi Experiment, which turned out to be a flop. —Scott Fowler, Charlotte Observer, 5 Aug. 2025