fritter away

Idioms  

1. 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.”

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Example Sentences

Some lines may be familiar: “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation”; “Our life is frittered away by detail ... simplify, simplify!”

From Los Angeles Times

Faced with a chilly house, some users might then dial up the power on their heat pump - but if you do that, much of the efficiency advantage fritters away, he says.

From BBC

I’d frittered away the better part of a week and now that dream of a mountain had just crumbled to dust.

From Literature

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

From The Wall Street Journal

That’s just where they want to be heading into the NFC championship game at Seattle, where last month they frittered away a 16-point lead in the fourth quarter and wound up losing in overtime.

From Los Angeles Times