to cut, trim, or shape (a stick, piece of wood, etc.) by carving off bits with a knife.
to form by whittling.
to whittle a figure.
to cut off (a bit).
to reduce the amount of, as if by whittling; pare down; take away by degrees (usually followed by down, away, etc.).
to whittle down the company's overhead; to whittle away one's inheritance.
to whittle wood or the like with a knife, as in shaping something or as a mere aimless diversion.
to spend an afternoon whittling.
to tire oneself or another by worrying or fussing.
to cut or shave strips or pieces from (wood, a stick, etc), esp with a knife
(tr) to make or shape by paring or shaving
(tr; often foll by away, down, off, etc) to reduce, destroy, or wear away gradually
dialect (intr) to complain or worry about something continually
1375–1425; late Middle English (noun), dialectal variant of thwitel knife, Old English thwīt ( an ) to cut + -el -le
To whittle is to pare or carve away. Wood carvers whittle pieces of wood, removing bit by bit until what's left is a sailor with a yellow raincoat or a lone wolf howling at the moon. Whittle can also mean to reduce an amount or number of items. In this sense, it is commonly paired with the words away or down. A courtroom attorney might "whittle away" at a defendant's alibi until the truth emerges. You might "whittle down" a to-do list or "whittle away" at your student loan debt every month. But only a highly skilled wood carver can whittle a chunk of pine into that old salty dog with a yellow raincoat.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
For more than a decade, I’ve been teaching a course at the California Institute of the Arts called American Drama Now, and each year the selection of plays has become harder to whittle down.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
Builders had hoped to capitalize on a busy spring buying season to whittle down inventories, but it was disappointing.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 16, 2026
If you have a highly concentrated stock allocation with large built-up gains, you can gradually whittle down your position and use the $6,000 deduction to minimize or cancel the tax hit, Adams says.
From Barron's ● Apr. 25, 2026
That hasn’t deterred the U.S., which has been flying more than 10 MQ-9 orbits over Iran at a time as the American commanders push to stop Tehran’s ballistic-missile launches and whittle down other offensive capabilities.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 16, 2026
Riders competing in ordinary weekday events needed to whittle themselves down another 5 pounds or so, while those in the lowest echelons of the sport couldn’t weigh much more than 100.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
Whittle indicated that she would seek further information before making a Prevention of Future Deaths order.
From BBC ● Mar. 5, 2026
Plaid Cymru MS Lindsay Whittle has called for better access to Xonvea, an anti-sickness medication which is not routinely available in Wales.
From BBC ● Jan. 21, 2026
But "gamifying" people's data in this way, can actually change how they listen to music, says Richard Whittle, Professor of artificial intelligence and public policy at the University of Salford.
From BBC ● Dec. 3, 2025
Defeat at Labour's hands was something Whittle was to get very used to - he has stood for election to Westminster ten times, and stood repeatedly for election to Cardiff Bay too.
From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2025
Mrs. Whittle had a good deal to say concerning the careless, good-natured wickedness of the people, and the people had a good deal to say about Mrs. Whittle.
From The Mystery of the Locks by Howe, Edgar Watson
That’s because inflation whittles away at the real purchasing power of those future interest payments.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 17, 2026
A newer House version whittles this down to 23 countries.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 10, 2025
This event often whittles down the primary field to a handful of candidates.
From Reuters ● Aug. 16, 2023
Every day, new development next to I-5 whittles away at opportunities to build a connected landscape in Southwest Washington.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 1, 2023
The Damasio team whittles it down to one.
From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman
That whittled the list down to the 3,300 candidates who were granted interviews.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026
That marks the reversal of a 15-year period when company buybacks and mergers-and-acquisitions activity whittled down the actual number of shares out there to invest, giving stocks fuel to keep rising, said McElligott.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 11, 2026
In the face of opposition from riders and delays in building charging stations, authorities have since whittled down the proposal to cover just 11 streets spread over 0.5 square kilometres.
From Barron's ● May 19, 2026
The shortlist has now reportedly been whittled down by the BBC following a series of on-screen chemistry tests in recent weeks.
From BBC ● May 12, 2026
Pauline, twenty pounds thinner, looked like a more concentrated version of herself: whittled down, somehow, pared down to her essence.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
Doing a cash-out refinance of a pandemic-era mortgage with a rate in the 3% range at today’s rates above 6% might actually be far more expensive than simply whittling down a card balance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 13, 2026
After whittling what had been a 24-point deficit to four with a little more than three minutes left Saturday, the Bruins could not find the miracle finish they were seeking.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 3, 2026
But the key is to put a cap on how much you spend to avoid falling into the trap of whittling away your winnings.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 12, 2025
Seated alone at the defence table and dressed in a grey jacket and red-striped tie, Routh joined the process of whittling down 180 local residents to 12 jurors and four alternates.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2025
Pa ain’t like Ma, he holds up on his whittling to talk.
From "Elijah of Buxton" by Christopher Paul Curtis
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.
