whittle down

More than 70,000 people voted in the first round to whittle it down to a shortlist of 10 and members of the public now have six weeks to choose which British bird they would like to see represent the country, he said.

他说，超过7万民众参与了第一轮投票，海选过后得出十个最终候选鸟，在接下来的六周里，民众就要选出哪种鸟最能代表英国。

A junior HR officer will typically whittle these down to a long list, spending no more than 15 seconds examining each cv.

人力资源部门的低级员工通常会精减出一份初选名单，他们阅读每份简历的时间不超过15秒。

They are trying to whittle down our salaries.

他们正着手削减我们的薪水.

But with a little effort, you can whittle your waste way down.

但是稍微付出一点努力，你可以大量减少垃圾排放量。

To make it tractable at all, the IMF membership had to whittle the basket down from its original sixteen currencies in the 1970s to five after 1981, later compressed to four as the D-Mark and the French franc were subsumed into the euro.

为了更加便于管控，IMF不得不将货币篮子从上世纪70年代的16种货币削减至1981年后的5种，后来随着德国马克和法国法郎被并入欧元又减少至4种。

In the case of private equity, critics worry that a capital gains tax regime designed to stimulate the growth of smaller quoted companies is being used to whittle down the tax rate on the "carried interest" of private equity bosses to an unjustifiably low level.

以私人股本行业为例，批评人士担心，以激励小规模上市企业增长为目的的资本利得税体制，正被用于将私人股本高管的“附带权益”（carried interest）税率降低至不合理的水平。

Eventually, users can whittle that fee down to nothing by tying their computers to The Pirate Bay's "cloud" network.

不过，如果用户愿意把自己的电脑加入海盗湾的“云”计算网络，那么他们的月费就可以被减免。

For a variety of practical reasons, Baker was forced to whittle the design down, first by dropping the top band of hot pink ( a pigment that proved difficult to source) and then turquoise ( inclusion of which, for reasons of symmetry, made displaying the flag as a vertically-hung banner from lampposts awkward).

由于各种实际原因，贝克被迫简化设计，首先去掉了顶部的亮粉色彩带（被证明是缺少颜料来源），然后去掉了天青色（出于对称原因，为了便于将旗帜垂直挂在路灯柱上）。

While the military gap between China and the United States may remain for some time, he argued, china's faster economic growth and increasing political strength may whittle down america's overall advantage.

他辩称，尽管中国和美国相比，军事上还有一段时间的差距，但中国更快的经济增长和日趋强大的政治实力应可削减美国的总体优势。

I am told by several banks that one of the ways they whittle down thousands of applicants to the 200-300 that they interview each year is by looking for relevant work experience, or internships.

几家银行告诉我，它们每年把数千名应聘者大幅削减到面试的二三百人，所用的方法之一，就是看他们有没有相关的工作经验或实习经验。

Ultimately, Mr. Penn said, Uber wants to whittle Beijing's time down to five minutes.

Penn称，Uber希望最终将北京客户的等待时间降至五分钟。

As Kodak ( ekdkq, Fortune 500) sets course to emerge from bankruptcy protection in 2013, it will continue to lighten its load, hoping to cut costs and whittle itself down to its most profitable assets.

柯达公司（Kodak）正设法到2013年摆脱破产保护的阴影，为此它将继续减轻负担，希望就此削减成本，只保留最具盈利能力的资产。

The president has agreed to whittle down his proposal.

总统已经同意减少他的提案。

Simpson ( John, not Homer) and his colleagues whittle that list down to the few that seem to have gotten a solid foothold in popular usage.

约翰-辛普森和他的同事们把众多的例句中筛选出在现实生活中最禁得住推敲的句子。

Don't whittle the stick down too much or it won't be long enough.

别把那棍削得太多，不然就不够长了。

Their resistance and boycott threat might instead be more of an effort to whittle down the markup that Rio Tinto is seeking in current contract negotiations.

他们的反对和抵制威胁或许更是一种为打击力拓的涨价企图而采取的策略。

Profits are whittle down by the ever-rising cost of energy.

不断增长的能源成本使利润下降.

Just whittle it down, you know?

把它简化一点？

Write out the complete story, he advises, and then whittle it down to a series of concise descriptive bullet points.

他建议，写出整个故事，然后再浓缩为一系列简明扼要的叙述。

We whittle it down to two.

慢慢地，我们又减少到了两项。

Other ways to whittle down banks are thinkable.

另外一些削减银行的办法是值得考虑的。

I think we'd better whittle down her schedule.

我想我们最好削减一些她的日程计划。

Whittle the stick down a bit more.

把木棍再削细点儿。

We need to whittle down the list of guests for the party.

我们需要缩减聚会的客人名单。

I finally managed to whittle down the names on the list to only five.

我最后总算把名单上的名字减少到了只有五个。