How to Use whittle down in a Sentence

whittle down

verb
  • Ready to whittle down your own pantry and start shopping your kitchen?
    — Heather Riske, Better Homes & Gardens, 29 Jan. 2026
  • Six townhall meetings were held, and the list was whittled down to four names.
    — Jemma Stephenson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 Feb. 2026
  • Arsenal’s lead at the top of the table has been whittled down to just four points.
    — Graham Ruthven, Forbes.com, 29 Jan. 2026
  • The Monforts whittled down a list of 20 to a select few.
    — Brittany Ghiroli, New York Times, 21 Apr. 2026
  • But the decades have whittled down the vibrant community of the past.
    — Hannah Brueske, Twin Cities, 31 May 2026
  • Every move has the same price and whittles down your season’s allotment of moves.
    — Michael Salfino, New York Times, 11 Mar. 2026
  • That field was whittled down to five then four before Warsh emerged as the selection.
    — Jeff Cox, CNBC, 30 Jan. 2026
  • The state has used those dollars to whittle down its hefty pension debt but still owes more than $33 billion in this area.
    — Keith M. Phaneuf, Hartford Courant, 3 Feb. 2026
  • The 2026 free-agent class has been whittled down by stars signing extensions with their current teams.
    — Peter Baugh, New York Times, 22 June 2026
  • But more than that, a longer time horizon also gives you more time to build equity, whittle down your loan balance, and make the costs of your loan worth it.
    — Aly J Yale, CBS News, 24 Apr. 2026
  • Trejo said the options had been whittled down from thousands of titles suggested in a statewide teachers survey.
    — Andrew Lapin, Sun Sentinel, 16 Feb. 2026
  • But could the difference really be whittled down to 36 inches?
    — Jeff Howe, New York Times, 7 Feb. 2026
  • In the years since, a series of treaties and agreements between the two countries gradually whittled down that number.
    — Cybele Mayes-Osterman, USA Today, 5 Feb. 2026
  • Not much has changed as the screenings did not seem to whittle down the batch of pilots significantly, so testing results may help break some ties.
    — Nellie Andreeva, Deadline, 1 May 2026
  • Zebby Matthews found himself on the outside looking in this spring as the Twins whittled down the number of starters in camp from six to five.
    — Betsy Helfand, Twin Cities, 14 May 2026
  • Ultimately, the agency whittled down its deficit to $66 million.
    — Jillian Taylor, StateImpact, 30 June 2026
  • The Warriors committed nine turnovers in the second quarter, and saw a 21-point lead whittled down to just nine by halftime.
    — Joseph Dycus, Mercury News, 16 Mar. 2026
  • While Brooks initially told Groening the shorts would be about two minutes long, they were drastically whittled down.
    — Tereza Shkurtaj, PEOPLE, 7 June 2026
  • After training camp, the roster will be whittled down from 90 players to 53 players prior to the start of the season.
    — Nick Harris, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 27 Apr. 2026
  • My sister and her family recently started whittling down my defenses.
    — Paul Stephen, San Antonio Express-News, 11 Mar. 2026
  • Now, after careful review by over 80 industry veterans, that number has been whittled down to the final nine.
    — Alexandra Hildreth, Vogue, 24 Apr. 2026
  • However, not only were those plans quickly moved to the backburner, but the second shift was cut and the workforce was whittled down – not by layoffs, but via attrition.
    — Alicia Wallace, CNN Money, 6 Mar. 2026
  • However, not only were those plans quickly moved to the backburner, but the second shift was cut and the workforce was whittled down – not by layoffs, but via attrition.
    — Alicia Wallace, CNN Money, 5 Mar. 2026
  • And that's especially important, Troiano said, as more states whittle down the number of competitive seats.
    — Ashley Lopez, NPR, 22 Feb. 2026
  • All players learn a full sentence per play call, then words are periodically whittled down until just one word remains in September.
    — Haley Sawyer, Oc Register, 4 Mar. 2026
  • The survivors, drifting on the open ocean, are then whittled down by hunger and thirst, by the varied dangers of the Pacific, and eventually by one another.
    — Eva Holland, The Atlantic, 30 Apr. 2026
  • No pressure, just months of conversations to whittle down in order to predict the top-10 picks of the NFL Draft.
    — Jeff Howe, New York Times, 21 Apr. 2026
  • The Patriots Hall of Fame Committee recently met to whittle down its list of candidates three.
    — Matt Schooley, CBS News, 8 Apr. 2026
  • Other archaeologists remain unconvinced that the woman’s brain had been removed or that the long bones had been deliberately whittled down into tools.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, ArsTechnica, 11 June 2026
  • The Florida Panthers understand the conversation surrounding their team as a lost season whittles down to its final days.
    — Jordan McPherson, Miami Herald, 14 Apr. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'whittle down.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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