whittle down
phrasal 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
To whittle down the field, the IBM team developed chemical foundation models trained on billions of molecules.
—
Andrew Moseman, IEEE Spectrum, 1 Oct. 2025
When Adelman inevitably starts to whittle down his rotation toward the end of the regular season, Holmes and Nnaji are likely candidates to be phased out completely, yielding more second-unit minutes to Watson (or even Johnson, a newcomer who could be deployed any number of ways).
—Bennett Durando, Denver Post, 24 Sep. 2025
But the final version is narrower than Wiener’s original 2018 proposal, having been whittled down to meet the demands of suburban lawmakers and affordability activists who have blocked previous versions of the bill.
—Kate Talerico, Mercury News, 16 Sep. 2025
When Keery whittled down the tracklist for the original album, there were more than two dozen contenders in the mix, thanks in large part to a concerted focus on seeing ideas through during the recording process.
—Josh Glicksman, Billboard, 12 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for whittle down
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Andrew Moseman, IEEE Spectrum, 1 Oct. 2025
When Adelman inevitably starts to whittle down his rotation toward the end of the regular season, Holmes and Nnaji are likely candidates to be phased out completely, yielding more second-unit minutes to Watson (or even Johnson, a newcomer who could be deployed any number of ways).
—Bennett Durando, Denver Post, 24 Sep. 2025
But the final version is narrower than Wiener’s original 2018 proposal, having been whittled down to meet the demands of suburban lawmakers and affordability activists who have blocked previous versions of the bill.
—Kate Talerico, Mercury News, 16 Sep. 2025
When Keery whittled down the tracklist for the original album, there were more than two dozen contenders in the mix, thanks in large part to a concerted focus on seeing ideas through during the recording process.
—Josh Glicksman, Billboard, 12 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for whittle down
Cite this Entry
“Whittle down.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whittle%20down. Accessed 11 Oct. 2025.
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