v.削(木頭)；削減

Don't whittle the stick into a short one. 別把木棍削成短的棍。

They are trying to whittle down our salaries. 他們正著手削減我們的薪水。

Furthermore, with the equity markets still in turmoil, Freescale may not be able in the near future to whittle down its debts by selling shares to the public. 更糟糕的是，資本市場仍然一片混亂，飛思卡爾在近期通過出售股票來削減債務(wù)壓力的可能性也不大。