wear down

wear down (third-person singular simple present wears down, present participle wearing down, simple past wore down, past participle worn down)

1. To cause (someone) physical or mental fatigue.

   The eight hour shift in the mine began to wear Tim down after a few months.

   (sports) To make the opponent tired after using a strategy while conserving own energy to attack later.

   He tried to wear down the bowlers before lunch so he could attack the bowlers after lunch.

2. To eventually persuade or defeat (someone) through persistent effort.

   At first she refused to buy the kids sweets, but eventually they wore her down.

   • 2015 May 12, Rachel Platten, Jon Levine, Scott Jacoby, “Congratulations”, in Fight Song‎^[1], performed by Rachel Platten:

     Congratulations, you got your shot in
     You wore me down

3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see wear,‎ down.

• See also Thesaurus:fatigue

• grind down (often synonymous; sometimes hyponymous)