Dictionary

inchmeal en · ADV

Pronunciation

• /ˈɪnt͡ʃ.miːl/

Etymology

From inch + -meal.

Meanings

1. (idiomatic, not-comparable) Gradually, little by little (an inch at a time).
   • Those who are not thus slippery in the tail, are light of finger; and of these the most pernicious are those who beggar you inchmeal. 1725, Daniel Defoe, Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business:
   • He could be as patient as Death, that inchmeal stalker of his prey; he could be as ruthless as the sea, and incredibly generous upon occasion. 1901, Maurice Hewlett, The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay:
   • I am a sanguinary murderer of time, and would kill him inchmeal just now. 1822, Charles and Mary Lamb, The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb (Vol. 6):
   • All the infections that the sun sucks up / From bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall, and make him / By inch-meal a disease! 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:

Forms

Translations (3)

bg малко по малко (little by little) · ru дю́йм за дю́ймом (little by little) · ru ма́ло-пома́лу (little by little)