dwindle
DWIN-dulverbMeaning to grow smaller little by little until little is left
Memory hook DWIN-DLE like a CAN-DLE: it shrinks down. Maya reads late into the night, and her candle shrinks from tall to short to a tiny stub. It dwindles.
Our supply of marshmallows dwindled as the campfire night went on.
In context As the afternoon wore on, the crowd at the parade dwindled; by five o’clock, only a few families were left, folding up their chairs.
Similar shrink, decrease, diminish, lessen
Opposite grow, increase, swell
From dwine, an old word meaning “to waste away,” from Old English dwinan.