as in erosion
a gradual weakening, loss, or destruction
took the machinery out of operation since attrition had led to the main mechanism's breaking
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Recent Examples of attrition
Instead of reaching some decisive crisis point, the conflict devolved into a deadlock – a war of attrition where neither side could achieve much more than small gains of territory in one place while suffering small losses of land in another.
—
David Szondy
may 02, New Atlas, 2 May 2026
By Game 6, the two best offensive players remaining in the war of attrition resided in Denver.
—Bennett Durando, Denver Post, 1 May 2026
Taken together, the higher estimate reflects not only the tempo of operations but also the often unseen costs of attrition, as material lost in the field reshapes the ledger.
—Kathryn Watson, CBS News, 30 Apr. 2026
Union Pacific has promised that every union employee who has a job with either railroad at the time of the merger will have a job for life although the workforce could still shrink through attrition if the number of shipments slows down.
—Josh Funk, Chicago Tribune, 30 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for attrition
David Szondy
may 02, New Atlas, 2 May 2026
By Game 6, the two best offensive players remaining in the war of attrition resided in Denver.
—Bennett Durando, Denver Post, 1 May 2026
Taken together, the higher estimate reflects not only the tempo of operations but also the often unseen costs of attrition, as material lost in the field reshapes the ledger.
—Kathryn Watson, CBS News, 30 Apr. 2026
Union Pacific has promised that every union employee who has a job with either railroad at the time of the merger will have a job for life although the workforce could still shrink through attrition if the number of shipments slows down.
—Josh Funk, Chicago Tribune, 30 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for attrition
Recent Examples of Synonyms for attrition
erosion
Noun
-
Some of these questions can be studied by a field called geomorphology, the study of how the Earth’s surface changes, especially by erosion.—
Geoff Emberling,
The Conversation,
19 May 2026
-
That hyper-local, hyper-personal sense of trust and the village green is becoming an important bulwark against the erosion of values in other realms.—
Diane Brady,
Fortune,
19 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Attrition.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/attrition. Accessed 22 May. 2026.
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