Definition of "wearing away" [wearing away]

• (geology) the mechanical process of wearing or grinding something down (as by particles washing over it) (noun)

WordNet. Princeton University. 2010.

• "She, active and fresh-looking still, but settling into that fair largeness which is not unbecoming a lady of middle-age, he, inclined to a slight stoop, with the lines of his face more sharply defined, and the hair wearing away off his forehead up to the crown."
• ""The time is wearing away apace!" growled the Earl of Kent."
• "A girl called Vanda Lane dies: a quiet girl, without friends, without family save for a lunatic mother wearing away her sad life in a half-world of unreality and doubt."