John shoveled and shoveled, but he didn't seem to make a dent in the pile of sand.
Mary studied all afternoon and only made a dent in her homework.
Словарь американских идиом. — СПб., Изд-во "Лань". Оригинал: A.Маккей, М.Т.Боткер, Дж.И.Гейтс. 1997.
make a dent in — (something) British, American & Australian, American to reduce the amount or level of something. The roof repairs made quite a dent in our savings. Police efforts have hardly put a dent in the level of drug trafficking on the streets. (often… … New idioms dictionary
make a dent in — make progress We worked hard all day but we didn t seem to make a dent in the amount of work left to do … Idioms and examples
make a dent in — {v. phr.}, {informal} To make less by a very small amount; reduce slightly. Usually used in the negative or with such qualifying words as hardly or barely . * /John shoveled and shoveled, but he didn t seem to make a dent in the pile of sand./ *… … Dictionary of American idioms
make a dent in — {v. phr.}, {informal} To make less by a very small amount; reduce slightly. Usually used in the negative or with such qualifying words as hardly or barely . * /John shoveled and shoveled, but he didn t seem to make a dent in the pile of sand./ *… … Dictionary of American idioms
make a dent in — phrasal : to produce an inconsiderable effect upon his gambling losses hardly made a dent in his huge fortune unable even to make a dent in his complacency … Useful english dictionary
make a dent in something — informal phrase to reduce the amount of something a strategy for making a dent in the crime statistics Thesaurus: to reduce somethingsynonym Main entry: dent * * * make, etc. a ˈdent in sth … Useful english dictionary
make a dent in something — make a dent in (something) British, American & Australian, American to reduce the amount or level of something. The roof repairs made quite a dent in our savings. Police efforts have hardly put a dent in the level of drug trafficking on the… … New idioms dictionary
make a dent in — make a depression in , create a hollow in … English contemporary dictionary
make a dent in something — informal to reduce the amount of something a strategy for making a dent in the crime statistics … English dictionary
make/put a dent — ◇ In figurative use, to make a dent (in something) or to put a dent in something is to decrease something slightly or to make it somewhat weaker. We tried our best to fix the problem, but nothing we did seems to have made a dent. [=nothing we did … Useful english dictionary
