grinding down

The recession is still grinding down tax revenues, and the bills for long-promised entitlements are coming due.

For, what do you suppose the winds take for millstones in grinding down the mountains into dust?

Emery with oil is used for grinding down, and tin-putty or colcothar for polishing.

He felt the grinding-down process at home all the more because his position in the school was that of a free man.

They were oppressors, grinding down the poor, and defrauding those below them.

They have no familiarity with that grinding-down process by which even unpromising races are transformed into Americans.