inchmeal

alternative inch-meal

1. idiomaticnot comparableGradually, little by little (an inch at a time).

   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)

   3 more examples

   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]

   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