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

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But the company still has a pile of IOUs to whittle away, which could limit its dividend aggression. —

Brett Owens, Forbes, 14 Jan. 2025 Around 20 million years ago, as wind and streams whittled away at the Rocky Mountains, the debris was dumped in the High Plains, a dusty bed of sand and gravel. —

Daniel Desrochers, Kansas City Star, 16 Jan. 2025 Other big bergs have been whittled away, allowing A23a to reclaim its crown, at least for a while. —

Amanda Kooser, Forbes, 17 Dec. 2024 But the shifts whittled away at the Democrats’ historic urban advantage and opened up a new avenue outside rural Wisconsin for Republican inroads. —

Craig Gilbert, Journal Sentinel, 25 Nov. 2024 See all Example Sentences for whittle away