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

Eventually, yes, but first, the dozens of women who show up in hopes of making the team will have to be whittled down. — Keith Phipps, Vulture, 19 Aug. 2026

Asking the public for a third round of tax increases feels like a political nonstarter, but so does whittling down his workers’ benefits. — Bob Herman, STAT, 18 Aug. 2026

The pool will be whittled down to a 12-person jury that will be tasked with deciding whether Sierra should be condemned to Florida’s Death Row or sentenced to life in prison. — Grethel Aguila, Miami Herald, 17 Aug. 2026

These new shutdowns are the latest in a series of moves that have whittled down Netflix’s internal game business, which now consists of Next Games, which is based in Helsinki, as well as a gaming team that works with external developers. — Jennifer Maas, Variety, 13 Aug. 2026

Rhymes for whittle down

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