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Gradually vs Inchmeal - What's the difference?

gradually | inchmeal |

As adverbs the difference between gradually and inchmeal

is that gradually is in a gradual manner; making slow progress; slowly while inchmeal is gradually, little by little (an inch at a time).

gradually

English

Adverb

(-)
  • In a gradual manner; making slow progress; slowly.
  • (obsolete) by degrees
  • Human reason doth not only gradually , but specifically, differ from the fantastic reason of brutes. — Grew.

    inchmeal

    English

    Alternative forms

    *inch-meal

    Adverb

    (-)
  • gradually, little by little (an inch at a time)
  • * 1610 , , act 2 scene 2
  • *:All the infections that the sun sucks up / From bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall, and make him / By inch-meal a disease!
  • * {{quote-book, year=1725, author=Daniel Defoe, title=Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business, chapter=, edition= citation
  • , passage=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 . }}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1822, author=Charles and Mary Lamb, title=The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb (Vol. 6), chapter=, edition= citation
  • , passage=I am a sanguinary murderer of time, and would kill him inchmeal just now. }}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1901, author=Maurice Hewlett, title=The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay, chapter=, edition= citation
  • , passage=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. }}