chip away | Idiomator

Meaning: (idiomatic,intransitive)Toreduceorweakenbit by bit; often used withat.1991, Jan Gorak,The Making of the Modern Canon: Genesis and Crisis of a Literary Idea, page24: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 tochip awayat the Scriptures,[…]1995June 15, John Edwards, quoting Matthew Towers, “How the Chips Fall”, inCIO, volume 8, number17, CXO Media, Inc.,→ISSN,page76:Matthew Towers, senior industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan, thinks the PowerPC will gradually build market share over the next several years. “They'll‘chip’ awayat Intel, but slowly,” he says.1997, Robert L. Heath,Strategic Issues Management: Organizations and Public Policy Challenges, SAGE Publications,→ISBN,page77:Antismoking groups continue their efforts tochip awayat the public support for smoking as well as at the favorable treatment of tobacco products.2023July 26, Howard Johnston, “Regional News: North West”, inRAIL, number988, page28: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, andchip awayat green space land.

Examples:

EN: I'll make it f-f-four dollars for the lot. And... And you can chip away all you want.
ES: Es suya a cuatro dólares por todos... y pueden quedarse cuanto quieran.
EN: I got to chip away at his picture.
ES: Liquídalos ya.
EN: "She got locked in the surgery cold store and an orderly had to chip away the ice with a nail file."
ES: La encerraron en Ia cámara frigorífica de Ia clínica y un camillero tuvo que desconchar el hielo con una lima de uñas".
EN: You chip away at each problem.
ES: Trabajas con cada problema.
EN: You know why they call 'em that? Because they like to chip away at you, man.
ES: Se les llama así porque se van apoderando de ti.
EN: -Trying to chip away.
ES: - Trata de debilitarnos.
EN: You just take a big block of wood and chip away everything that's not a canoe.
ES: Solo necesitas un gran bloque de madera y cortar hasta que quede una canoa.
EN: You chip away at the edifice of history, and, well, you weaken one of the few spiritual timbers we have left.
ES: Si descascaras el edificio de la historia... debilitas una de las pocas vigas espirituales que nos quedan.
EN: We're gonna chip away a little bit of the paint there, find out what we're dealing with.
ES: Vamos a rascar la pintura un poco para saber con qué estamos tratando.
EN: -Chip away, chip away.
ES: - Contribuye, contribuye.
EN: You can't take the chyron chip away from me.
ES: No puedes quitarme el chip chyron.
EN: You chip away at that with a bunch of unnecessary testing and we can kiss the playoffs goodbye.
ES: Cárgate eso con revisiones innecesarias... ... ypodemosdeciradiós a los playoffs.
EN: And they had to chip away at the block very carefully so they wouldn't mess up any of the evidence.
ES: Y tuvieron que despedazar el bloque con mucho cuidado... para no arruinar nada de la evidencia.
EN: I'm not gonna let you do that thing where you chip away at a guy I'm dating.
ES: ¿Por qué? No permitiré que menosprecies a alguien con quien salgo.
EN: The Knights have one more chance here to chip away at this lead before halftime.
ES: Los Knights pueden empatar antes del descanso.

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