attrition
noun /əˈtrɪʃn/
/əˈtrɪʃn/
[uncountable] (formal)- a process of making somebody/something, especially your enemy, weaker by repeatedly attacking them or creating problems for them
- It was a war of attrition.
- These were the economics not of efficiency but of attrition.
- (especially North American English) (British English usually natural wastage)the process of reducing the number of people who are employed by an organization by, for example, not replacing people who leave their jobs
Word Originlate Middle English : from late Latin attritio(n-), from atterere ‘to rub’.