wear down

wear down (third-person singular simple present wears down, present participle wearing down, simple past wore down, past participle worn down)

1. To cause (someone) physical or mental fatigue.

   The eight hour shift in the mine began to wear Tim down after a few months.

2. To eventually persuade or defeat (someone) through persistent effort.

   At first she refused to buy the kids sweets, but eventually they wore her down.

3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see wear,‎ down.

• See also Thesaurus:fatigue

• grind down (often synonymous; sometimes hyponymous)