| 释义 |
by inches
Thesaurus| Adv. | 1.by inches - by a short distance; "they moved it by inches"by small degrees, little by little |
by inches
by inchesSlowly over time. You won't improve your grade all at once, but rather, by inches throughout the semester.See also: by, inchby inchesAlso, inch by inch. Gradually, bit by bit, as in We found ourselves in rush hour traffic, moving by inches. Shakespeare used this term in Coriolanus (5:4): "They'll give him death by inches." Despite the increasing use of metric measurements, it survives, often as an exaggeration of the actual circumstance. The phrase to inch along, first recorded in 1812, means "to move bit by bit," as in There was a long line at the theater, just inching along. See also: by, inchby inches
Synonyms for by inchesadv by a short distanceSynonyms- by small degrees
- little by little
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