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Definition
gradual loss or weakening — especially loss of people such as in a war- a war of attrition
- The company is reducing the number of employees through normal attrition rather than through layoffs.
- John's river, some quartz crystals with their edges blunted from attrition, and mixed with gravel on the sea-beach.Darwin, Charles -- The Voyage of the Beagle
- Attrition was their wisdom.Eudora Welty -- The Golden Apples
- Attrition was their wisdom.Eudora Welty -- The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty
- Now we are in a war of attrition.Rick Yancey -- The 5th Wave
- Given our rate of attrition, we hadn't much reason to take the chance of being forgiven.Mark Helprin -- A Soldier of the Great War
- Plan Number Six: Wage a War of Attrition.Yann Martel -- Life of Pi
- Gradually, attrition thinned the ranks.Laura Hillenbrand -- Seabiscuit
- The band suffered a lot of attrition but somehow they always kept it going.Robert A. Heinlein -- Starship Troopers
- On that night he took to the hills and began his long patient war of attrition against the man I was in danger of becoming.Pat Conroy -- The Lords of Discipline
- And right here the attrition began.Marcus Luttrell -- Lone Survivor
- He hopes to drag out this fight, to bleed us dry through slow attrition.Christopher Paolini -- Brisingr
- Whether it was attrition of other people, or whatever.Michael Lewis -- The Blind Side
- The surprise of the attrition rate is that only a fraction of the ill-fated planes were lost in combat.Laura Hillenbrand -- Unbroken
- But China is a vast country, and despite millions of casualties, Japan's war became a debilitating war of attrition.James Bradley -- Flags of Our Fathers
- That's where the heaviest attrition is.Chris Kyle -- American Sniper
- He'd had good experiences with almost all of them, though in his business there was an above-average rate of attrition and turnover.Dave Eggers -- Zeitoun
- This was a battle of attrition.Ted Dekker -- Red: The Heroic Rescue
- Attrition ran 70 percent in early years—but those who lived were nice people.Robert A. Heinlein -- The Moon is a Harsh Mistress