by inches

Idioms and Phrases

Also, 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 .