whittle down

英 [ˈwɪtl daʊn]

美 [ˈwɪtl daʊn]

逐渐减少; 逐渐压缩…的人数

柯林斯词典

• PHRASAL VERB 逐渐减少;逐渐压缩…的人数
  Towhittle downa group or thing means to gradually make it smaller.
  1. He had whittled eight interviewees down to two...
     他已经逐渐将参加面试的人数由8人减少到2人。
  2. By September, they will have whittled the list down to a winner...
     9月之前他们会从名单中确定出最后的赢家。
  3. The president has agreed to whittle down his proposal.
     总统已经同意减少他的提案。

英英释义

verb

• cut away in small pieces
  Synonym:whittle awaywear away

双语例句

• Eventually, users can whittle that fee down to nothing by tying their computers to The Pirate Bay's "cloud" network.
  不过，如果用户愿意把自己的电脑加入海盗湾的“云”计算网络，那么他们的月费就可以被减免。
• Don't whittle the stick down too much or it won't be long enough.
  别把那棍削得太多，不然就不够长了。
• BERLIN ( Reuters Life!)– Challenged with a100 million euro ($ 133 million) deficit, one western German city has introduced a day tax on prostitutes to help whittle down its budget gap.
  柏林（路透社）-受100万欧元（1.33亿美元）赤字的冲击，德国西部城市之一引入妓女住宿税，以帮助削减其预算缺口。
• More than 70,000 people voted in the first round to whittle it down to a shortlist of 10 and members of the public now have six weeks to choose which British bird they would like to see represent the country, he said.
  他说，超过7万民众参与了第一轮投票，海选过后得出十个最终候选鸟，在接下来的六周里，民众就要选出哪种鸟最能代表英国。
• They are trying to whittle down our salaries.
  他们正着手削减我们的薪水。
• Write out the complete story, he advises, and then whittle it down to a series of concise descriptive bullet points.
  他建议，写出整个故事，然后再浓缩为一系列简明扼要的叙述。
• Simpson ( John, not Homer) and his colleagues whittle that list down to the few that seem to have gotten a solid foothold in popular usage.
  约翰-辛普森和他的同事们把众多的例句中筛选出在现实生活中最禁得住推敲的句子。
• Their resistance and boycott threat might instead be more of an effort to whittle down the markup that Rio Tinto is seeking in current contract negotiations.
  他们的反对和抵制威胁或许更是一种为打击力拓的涨价企图而采取的策略。
• We whittle it down to two.
  慢慢地，我们又减少到了两项。
• I think we'd better whittle down her schedule.
  我想我们最好削减一些她的日程计划。