as in cutting
to cause to diminish gradually by or as if by cutting off bits with a knife
He was sitting on the porch, whittling a stick.
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Recent Examples of whittling
Beauty was whittling myself down with anorexia and the gasps of college friends at the beauty of my bones through my skin.
—
Literary Hub, 18 Aug. 2025
Literary Hub, 18 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for whittling
Verb
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The Unified Government created a set of incentives, which include cutting permit fees and water and sewer connection fees, for people who want to build on its land bank property to try to encourage redevelopment.—
Kansas City Star,
Kansas City Star,
18 Oct. 2025
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The prince also accused his father of cutting him off financially, and Meghan said the royals discussed denying their children prince and princess titles and police protection.—
Jack Royston,
MSNBC Newsweek,
18 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Next to a wooden model of an ibis and a Brazil shirt signed by 1994 World Cup winner Ricardo Rocha is a small newspaper clipping.—
Jack Lang,
New York Times,
11 Oct. 2025
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Tie branches with twine and add evergreen tassels, then insert photos in the branches, clipping them on, if needed, to hold in place.—
Emily Williams,
Better Homes & Gardens,
7 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Using adjuvants such as aluminum also help make vaccines more efficient by lowering the amount of material needed to produce an immune response, reducing the number of booster shots needed and improving the body’s immune memory of a pathogen.—
Humberto Basilio,
Scientific American,
17 Oct. 2025
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Mamdani’s brand of economic populism and laser focus on lowering costs in the astronomically expensive city has generated buzz and excitement.—
Dave Smith,
Fortune,
17 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Whittling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/whittling. Accessed 19 Oct. 2025.
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