to whittle down
10
5.1
- phrasal verb
- /ˈhwɪtəl daʊn/
:
reducir
- After reviewing all the proposals, we whittled down the list to just three finalists.
Your ego gets whittled down each day.
- Your ego gets whittled down each day.
- I've really whittled down what my core purpose is in life.
- So they're seeing their throne legs being whittled down and now their butts are coming down to the level of the inferior people.
- My best piece of advice, it always whittles down to the same thing for me, which is the days feel so incredibly long.
- And I think, you know, that had been whittled down through RIP to be a smaller group.
- It was very hard to whittle it down to that.
- Thank you, Joe Catherine, just wondering when I'm going to get that precious bookshelf picture inside joke with that whittled down collection of dead tree.
Examples
-
The company has whittled itself down to simply a distributor of its old DSL chipsets.
Blog text (8) -
After preliminary analysis, that group was whittled down to 22 products for more extensive testing.
Academic text (1996) -
I am proud that we whittled it down to these three so quickly.
-
But in the end, we whittled the number down to 20.
Blog text (32) -
And how many times has a studio taken a great script and whittled it down to nothing in the end?
Blog text (25) -
I've really whittled down what my core purpose is in life.
-
Emanuel urged the president to whittle down the bill into small pieces that could pass through Congress.
Blog text (7) -
For the past eighteen months, she had whittled these down to stray phrases and single words.
Fiction book (2000) -
At our initial layout session, we whittle down approximately 150 ads to less than 50 and make a rough PDF.
Blog text (5) -
Simplify manufacture, assembly, and maintenance by whittling down the 5,000 parts that go into a conventional car to 400 or 500 components.
Academic text (1999)
Synonyms
∞
1.6
To make something smaller in amount, size, or number
201
3.7
To become less in size, importance, or value
181
2.8
Become less in amount or value
89
3.0
Make an amount or level lower
65
2.7
To make something smaller in amount or number
45
2.3
Make something shorter, for example an article, skirt, or route
34
2.8
To make something smaller in amount or strength
17
5.7
To make something smaller by removing small parts
9
4.4
Make something smaller by removing parts you do not need
9
3.6
To make something shorter while keeping the important parts
8
4.0
To make something smaller in size or amount
8
4.1
Make something smaller, like a product or living space
3
3.4
To make something smaller by cutting or removing parts
3
5.9
To make something smaller gradually by cutting or wearing it away
2
4.2
To remove things you do not need to make something smaller or work better
2
5.9
Make an idea or topic seem less important
1
4.3
Make something smaller or cheaper to save money
1
3.4
Make a thing smaller by cutting or removing parts
1
7.5
Make something shorter in time or length while keeping its main parts
1
8.4
To make something smaller so it uses less space or time
Antonyms
How Reduced
- NSFW
502
3.4
79
3.7
65
2.7
10
5.1
9
4.4
95
2.6
129
3.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
The literal sense of 'whittle' (to shave or carve off small pieces) plus 'down' (to reduce or lower) composes a clear image of gradually removing parts to make something smaller, so the MWE's meaning is directly inferable from its constituents. This verb+particle formation and the erosion-to-reduction metaphor are common and predictable, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily understand it.
Etymology
Whittle down comes from the image of slowly shaving bits from a piece of wood; to whittle is to cut away small pieces and down shows making it smaller. So, whittle down means 'to reduce' something little by little.