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Synonyms

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.”

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.

Fritter away those fifteen seconds and your audience will either mentally check out or pull out their phones to start texting.

From Inc • Dec. 18, 2012

Fritter away in silly things the few golden moments left for self-culture.

From Story Hour Readings: Seventh Year by Hartwell, E. C. (Ernest Clark)

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

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.