whittle down

verb

whittled down; whittling down; whittles down

: to gradually make (something) smaller by removing parts

We whittled the list down to four people.

Examples of whittle down in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Moving usually means whittling down—and when the move is overseas, the purging pressure mounts. — Jody Garlock, Better Homes & Gardens, 16 Sep. 2026

Each cluster would hold three events to whittle down to continental champions, then those four fighters would compete in one night to determine the league-wide winner. — Oskar Garcia, New York Times, 15 Sep. 2026

Sure, the Gators still played a ten game, All SEC slate, but access to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium was greatly limited, as the stadium which normally seats upwards of 90,000 fans on gameday had its attendance whittled down to less than 20,000. — Austin Perry Outkick, FOXNews.com, 10 Sep. 2026

With so many of these films destined to wind up on streaming services rather than art houses, there’s little incentive for directors to whittle down their work to the two-hour mark. — Nate Jones, Vulture, 10 Sep. 2026

Rhymes for whittle down

• chinatown
• tumbledown
• adown
• blowdown
• breakdown
• countdown
• crackdown
• crosstown
• downtown
• drawdown
• dropdown
• facedown