whittle

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

Trying to whittle down thousands of players from 22 tournaments spread over almost a century to pick the top 10 World Cup legends of all time.

From BBC ● Jun. 11, 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

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

That’s because inflation whittles away at the real purchasing power of those future interest payments.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 17, 2026

Continuing to work whittles away at what time we have left to travel and enjoy the rest of the world.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 19, 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

Even the final list of 16 host cities, whittled down from 23, came down to his personal preferences.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 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 days before the trial, the more than 20 claims that Musk had leveled at Altman and his associates were whittled down to just two: breach of charitable trust and unjust enrichment.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 16, 2026

These were then whittled down by initial conversations, leading to the final interviews.

From BBC ● May 7, 2026

He took out his knife and whittled some thin strips of bark off one of the sticks he'd gathered, to serve as kindling.

From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin

He describes his efforts as “more akin to whittling at a piece of wood—for I am removing word after word until what remains seems to be the truth.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 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

And Bryson DeChambeau was whittling away after losing five of the first seven to Fitzpatrick.

From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2025

Doing so would fast-track the bills into law without the normal whittling down that happens in committee hearings.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2025

“I was angry about not getting any fish,” he said as he returned to his whittling, “so I struck my crutch against a rock. It broke, of course.”

From "A Single Shard" by Linda Sue Park