LITTLE BY LITTLE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Little by little

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/lˈɪtəl baɪ lˈɪtəl/ Listen

noun

Little n.

That which is little; a small quantity, amount, space, or the like. "Much was in little writ." "There are many expressions, which carrying with them no clear ideas, are like to remove but little of my ignorance."

A small degree or scale; miniature. " His picture in little." "A little, to or in a small degree; to a limited extent; somewhat; for a short time. " Stay a little."" "The painter flattered her a little." By little and little, or Little by little, by slow degrees; piecemeal; gradually.

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Etymology of 'Little by little'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Little by little" Quotes from Famous Books

... enough that his eyes should turn to Portugal, for Portugal was the greatest sea-faring nation of the age. Her sailors had discovered the Madeira Islands, and crept little by little down the coast of Africa, rounding this headland and that, searching always for a passage to India, which they knew lay somewhere to the east, until, at last, they had sailed triumphantly around the Cape of Good Hope. It is worth remarking that Columbus's brother, Bartholomew, of whom we ...

— American Men of Action • Burton E. Stevenson

... pass unchallenged. Their course was a zigzag one designed to bring them as quickly as possible to Oxford Street. When at length they turned into it, proceeding in an easterly direction, Tommy slightly increased his pace. Little by little he gained upon them. On the crowded pavement there was little chance of his attracting their notice, and he was anxious if possible to catch a word or two of their conversation. In this he was completely foiled; ...

— The Secret Adversary • Agatha Christie

... Little by little the soldiers drew him up and in the darkness they bound him fast there upon the lofty cross. Then they descended and left him, and would have led Noma with them from the tree. But this they could not do, for always she broke from them ...

— The Wizard • H. Rider Haggard

... to myself, 'I'm going to find out about them fellows.' I went to their meetings, and little by little I pretended to get converted, and I tell you, Mr. Ackerman, our police are asleep; they don't know what these agitators are doing, what they're preaching. They don't know what a hold they've got on the mobs ...

— 100%: The Story of a Patriot • Upton Sinclair

... such as these are to be admitted against women, it will become necessary to deprive of the rights of citizenship that portion of the people who, devoted to constant labour, can neither acquire knowledge nor exercise their reason; and thus, little by little, only those persons would be permitted to be citizens who had completed a course of legal study. If such principles are admitted, we must, as a natural consequence, renounce the idea of a liberal constitution. ...

— The First Essay on the Political Rights of Women • Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de Caritat Condorcet

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