english
1
general::
Squander or waste little by little; wear down gradually. For example, She frittered away her salary on odds and ends and saved nothing. This expression was first recorded in Alexander Pope's Dunciad (1728): "How prologues into prefaces decay, And these to notes are fritter'd quite away."
American Heritage Idioms
2
general::
Phrase(s): fritter something away (on someone or something) to waste something, such as money, on someone or something, foolishly. • Did you fritter good money away on that old car? • You frittered away one hundred dollars on that piece of junk?
McGrawhill's American Idioms And Phrasal Verbs