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
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
The amount of gas remaining as these disks are whittled away determines the type of planets these systems produce, the researchers found.
—Robert Lea, Space.com, 17 June 2025
But the big increase in transfer spending of recent years has whittled away at Spurs’ profitability and placed a significant strain on cash.
—Chris Weatherspoon, New York Times, 23 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for whittle away
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
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
The amount of gas remaining as these disks are whittled away determines the type of planets these systems produce, the researchers found.
—Robert Lea, Space.com, 17 June 2025
But the big increase in transfer spending of recent years has whittled away at Spurs’ profitability and placed a significant strain on cash.
—Chris Weatherspoon, New York Times, 23 Apr. 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 20 Aug. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share