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

Other archaeologists remain unconvinced that the woman’s brain had been removed or that the long bones had been deliberately whittled down into tools. —Jennifer Ouellette, ArsTechnica, 11 June 2026

The Leafs have whittled down a list of over 50 candidates to roughly 20, and Pavelski, despite lacking professional coaching experience, was expected to be part of that second group. —Curtis Pashelka, Mercury News, 11 June 2026

While Brooks initially told Groening the shorts would be about two minutes long, they were drastically whittled down. —Tereza Shkurtaj, PEOPLE, 7 June 2026

At the time, the fintech company boasted around 4,500 staffers—and after letting natural attrition run its course at a rate of 20% of workers leaving each year—the workforce was whittled down to 3,500 by 2024. —Emma Burleigh, Fortune, 1 June 2026

Rhymes for whittle down

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