fritter away

1. Squander or waste little by little; wear down gradually. For example, She frittered away her salary on odds and ends and saved nothing. This expression was first recorded in Alexander Pope's Dunciad (1728): “How prologues into prefaces decay, And these to notes are fritter'd quite away.”

Example Sentences

A two-under 34 on the front nine failed to do that and when McIlroy frittered away two shots on the 10th, it was clear the championship was beyond his reach.

From BBC

Sam Burns and Adam Scott had frittered away their overnight advantage.

From BBC

Just ask Henry David Thoreau, who was lamenting in 1854 that our lives are being “frittered away by detail.”

From Los Angeles Times

And here’s the thing: It’s easy to fritter away our power, but it would be a decades-long struggle to regain influence once it’s gone.

From Los Angeles Times

The article reports that -- contrary to popular belief -- massive multiplayer online gamers learn by gaming and their skills in the workplace are enriched by those seemingly endless hours previously thought of as frittering away time.

From Science Daily