damage vs whittle down

damage is a noun but whittle down is not a noun.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
damage	Yes	No	Yes	No
whittle down	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, whittle down is a hyponym of damage; that is, whittle down is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than damage:

damage (noun)	whittle down (noun)
the act of damaging something or someone
any harm or injury resulting from a violation of a legal right
the occurrence of a change for the worse
loss of military equipment
the amount of money needed to purchase something

damage (verb)	whittle down (verb)
inflict damage upon	cut away in small pieces
suffer or be susceptible to damage