If something dwindles, it becomes smaller, weaker, or less in number. The factory's workforce has dwindled from over 4,000 to a few hundred He is struggling to come to terms with his dwindling authority. = shrink. dwindle away to gradually become less and less or smaller and smaller (dwine )
[ 'dwin-d&l ] (verb.) 1596. probably frequentative of dwine to waste away, from Middle English, from Old English dwInan; akin to Old Norse dvIna to pine away, deyja to die; more at DIE.