美 [ˈwɪtl daʊn]
逐渐减少，逐步削减：逐渐通过去除部分使（某物）变小。
cut away in small pieces
同义词： whittle away / wear away
... Frank Whittle 惠特尔 ; 测试弗兰克·威特尔 Dennis Whittle 丹尼斯惠特 whittle down 削减 ...
... concentrate on 全神贯注;集中(心思); whittle down 逐渐减少;逐渐压缩…的人数; in the first place 起初;一开始; ...
削减，削弱
I finally managed to whittle down the names on the list to only five.
我最后总算把名单上的名字减少到了只有五个。
They won't whittle down your salaries.
他们不会削减你们的工资。
They are trying to whittle down our salaries.
他们正着手削减我们的薪水。
We transition to actually real world applications later on like a compression-- how do you take a huge amount of data ; and actually whittle it down into something more manageable; something that uses less of your disk space.
然后我们会讲生活中的应用程序,比方说压缩文件——,把大量的数据分解使其更易管理;,并占用尽量少的磁盘空间。
计算机科学课程节选 : 哈佛公开课
The new regulations will whittle down the list of approved manufacturers to ten for 2003.
It too incarcerated its contestants and obliged them to whittle down their own numbers.
The opposition's best hope in the next election may be to whittle down his majority.