whittle away at something
phrasal verb with whittle verb [ T ] uk/ˈwɪt.əl/ us/ˈwɪt̬.əl/
削减；削弱
to gradually reduce the size or importance of something
These measures will whittle away at the budget deficit. 这些方法将会逐渐减少预算赤字。
江苏热线英汉汉英双解词典包含207361条英汉翻译词条，涵盖了常用英语单词及词组短语的翻译及用法，是英语学习的必备工具。