chip away

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

chip away (third-person singular simple present chips away, present participle chipping away, simple past and past participle chipped away)

1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To reduce or weaken bit by bit; often used with at.
   • 1991, Jan Gorak, The Making of the Modern Canon: Genesis and Crisis of a Literary Idea, page 24:

     Iraneus contrasts the unity and integrity of these writings with the distorted, contextless citations of the Gnostics. He describes the code of textual harassment that allows these heretics to chip away at the Scriptures, […]

   • 1995 June 15, John Edwards, quoting Matthew Towers, “How the Chips Fall”, in CIO, volume 8, number 17, CXO Media, Inc., →ISSN, page 76:

     Matthew Towers, senior industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan, thinks the PowerPC will gradually build market share over the next several years. “They'll ‘chip’ away at Intel, but slowly,” he says.

   • 1997, Robert L. Heath, Strategic Issues Management: Organizations and Public Policy Challenges, SAGE Publications, →ISBN, page 77:

     Antismoking groups continue their efforts to chip away at the public support for smoking as well as at the favorable treatment of tobacco products.

   • 2023 July 26, Howard Johnston, “Regional News: North West”, in RAIL, number 988, page 28:

     Darcy Lever: Bolton Council has rejected a plan to build 112 homes across the trackbed of the former Bury line. It is concerned that it would prevent any future extension of Manchester Metrolink, and chip away at green space land.

Synonyms

• plug away, beaver away

Translations

to reduce or weaken bit by bit

• French: ébrécher (fr)
• Hungarian: farigcsál (hu), kikezd (hu)
• Marathi: कातणे (kātṇe)
• Romanian: ciopli (ro)

See also

• salami tactics