fritter away

Idioms

Squander or waste little by little; wear down gradually. For example, She frittered away her salary on odds and ends and saved nothing. This expression was first recorded in Alexander Pope's Dunciad (1728): “How prologues into prefaces decay, And these to notes are fritter'd quite away.”

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

I clear my schedule and hole up in the library, only to fritter away hours doing everything but writing.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 30, 2026

But in recent years, that shame has started to fritter away - at least in some quarters.

From BBC • Oct. 16, 2025

Except that anyone familiar with the history of the Chargers and their ability to fritter away leads had to know it was far from over.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 15, 2023

One of the children's main arguments was that the trustees never should have allowed their father to fritter away the principal of a dynastic trust on a money-losing newspaper.

From Salon • Dec. 18, 2021

“Frances. Let’s go, buddy. Let’s not fritter away the best part of the day here….Let’s go, buddy.”

From "Franny and Zooey" by J. D. Salinger

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023