He used a hammer and chisel to chip away at the wall.

他用锤子和凿子将墙壁一点点凿掉。

《柯林斯英汉双解大词典》

Help the team find some aspect of the problem to chip away at.

帮助团队找到问题的一些方面作为切入点。

youdao

But snoring regularly can chip away at the quality of your own sleep.

但是经常性的打鼾就会逐渐影响你自身的睡眠质量了。

youdao

"You are always going to have racism, you are always going to have sexism, you are always going to have classism, that is something that we cannot change in one fell swoop, but with work and efforts like what is being done at IMAN, we chip away at that, one person,one character, one idea at a time."

VOA: standard.2010.03.15

That combination would allow Microsoft to chip away at Google's lead, especially in search advertising.

FORBES: A Messy Marriage

Constant specters of unrelenting dangers risk sowing defeatism and chip away at our own morale.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Ridicule: a potent US weapon

Hence, too, a determination to centralise and control decisions that might otherwise chip away at cohesion.

ECONOMIST: The DaimlerChrysler emulsion