inch-by-inch

• “It also signaled that we had started our inch-by-inch climb out of the underground scene and into the mainstream—like ninjas pushing up street drain covers and rising up into the big, wide world.”

  Simon & Schuster: Fallin’ Up

• “My attitude is if we're making progress step-by-step, inch-by-inch, day-by-day that we are being true to the spirit of that campaign.”

  The Huffington Post: Kathleen Reardon: Obama vs. Stewart: The Pace of Change

• “As in every American politician's reckoning with reality, we the voters will now decide whether such paced leadership is okay -- if step-by-step, inch-by-inch, day-by-day works for us.”

  The Huffington Post: Kathleen Reardon: Obama vs. Stewart: The Pace of Change

• “So, one night, I open the door, inch-by-inch, and sprint along the landing, stumble down the three steps to the toilet, the presence of something behind me.”

  Fictionaut: bolt the door

• “Sitting in all kinds of weather, being gradually, microscopically, inch-by-inch moved.”

  First There Is a Mountain, Then There Is No Mountain, Then There Is « Looking for Roots

• “She describes the next decades of learning, collecting and visiting artists at the far ends of the city as "inch-by-inch.”

  The Wall Street Journal: Crafts Museum Gets Benefactor

• “Auction houses say newcomers are asking for large-scale pieces—possibly wanting to get their money's worth on an inch-by-inch basis.”

  The Wall Street Journal: The Art Market Snaps Back

• “It makes little difference if Obama is a progressive at heart or if Rahm Emanuel hates the left - simple politics dictates that you have to make the 40,000 foot case for your inch-by-inch progress.”

  The Huffington Post: Peter Daou: On the Left, a False Choice Fuels the Growing Civil War Over Obama

• “It is not uncommon to sit in one place and crawl inch-by-inch for extended periods of time.”

  The Huffington Post: Fred Silberberg: It's Time to Try the One-Way Street Plan

• “The bitter year-long battle over health-care legislation has become an inch-by-inch, word-by-word war for public opinion in which features of the legislation are being trumpeted, spun, counter-spun, and spat upon.”

  The Washington Post: Republicans criticize Obama administration brochure on health-care overhaul

Show 10 more examples...