whittling

verb

1. (form-of, gerund, participle, present)present participle and gerund of whittle

noun

1. (plural-normally)A chip or shaving whittled from some larger substance.
2. The art of carving shapes out of raw wood using a knife.
3. A process of repeatedly shaving slivers from a piece of wood (non-artistic).
4. (broadly, figuratively)The reducing of something by degrees, especially at the expense of some effort.

   “a whittling down”

   “Result: nothing would prevent the rapid destruction of the Deco District. Already the developers are calling for a whittling down of the original square mile to a few blocks. The few blocks will no doubt be whittled down to one building, and in the end all that will be left will be a Deco mailbox well pissed on by the local dogs. In another era it was called salami tactics.”