whittle down
Trim bit by
To whittle down is to reduce something gradually, as a woodcarver shaves away material with a knife.
You whittle down a list of candidates, whittle down expenses, whittle down options until only the essential remains: We whittled down the guest list from two hundred to fifty.
The phrase emphasizes incremental reduction rather than sudden elimination.
- pareRemove outer layer
- shaveCut hair close
- winnowSort by blowing air
- distillPurify through vaporization
- reduceMake smaller in degree
shave off · trim · carve · hone · wear away · cull · condense · streamline · prune · hew · cut · refine · thin · simplify · narrow · select · declutter · choose