whittle away
phrasal verb
whittled away; whittling away; whittles away
: to reduce or get rid of (something) slowly
I'm still trying to whittle away a few more pounds.
Examples of whittle away in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Without historical habitat protections, a butterfly species such as this one might disappear entirely between underfunded surveys, vanishing before anyone realizes, while species such as the manatee may continue shrinking as previous methods of intervention get whittled away.
—
Lois Parshley, The Atlantic, 25 Aug. 2025
But for years, Republicans have whittled away at the infrastructure of the original ACA.
—Elisabeth Rosenthal, Miami Herald, 12 Aug. 2025
As Broadcom continues to whittle away at VMware’s remaining partner base, the impacts of a smaller partner program will become harder to ignore, particularly for small-to-medium-sized businesses.
—Scharon Harding, ArsTechnica, 16 July 2025
Slowly but surely, Reiner and his editors whittled away at the movie to get it down to a tight 84 minutes.
—Jim Hemphill, IndieWire, 3 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for whittle away
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Lois Parshley, The Atlantic, 25 Aug. 2025
But for years, Republicans have whittled away at the infrastructure of the original ACA.
—Elisabeth Rosenthal, Miami Herald, 12 Aug. 2025
As Broadcom continues to whittle away at VMware’s remaining partner base, the impacts of a smaller partner program will become harder to ignore, particularly for small-to-medium-sized businesses.
—Scharon Harding, ArsTechnica, 16 July 2025
Slowly but surely, Reiner and his editors whittled away at the movie to get it down to a tight 84 minutes.
—Jim Hemphill, IndieWire, 3 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for whittle away
Cite this Entry
“Whittle away.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whittle%20away. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.
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