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ONE BY ONE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adverb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
One piece at a time
Example:
she sold the plates by the piece
Synonyms:
by the piece; one by one
Classified under:
Sense 2
Meaning:
Apart from others
Example:
the fine points are treated singly
Synonyms:
individually; on an individual basis; one by one; separately; severally; singly
Classified under:
Sense 3
Meaning:
In succession
Example:
the prisoners came out one by one
Synonyms:
one at a time; one by one
Classified under:
Adverbs
Context examples:
If you'll come up one by one, unarmed, I'll engage to clap you all in irons and take you home to a fair trial in England.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Mars will act like a match, igniting, one by one, each of the gifts of good-fortune Jupiter, transformative, powerhouse Pluto, and practical Saturn as he aligns separately with each planet.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
One by one the management of the noble houses of Great Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across the Atlantic.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
His majesty approved of the proposal, and I took them up, one by one, in my hands, ready mounted and armed, with the proper officers to exercise them.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
One by one the mice came creeping back, and Toto did not bark again, although he tried to get out of the Woodman's arms, and would have bitten him had he not known very well he was made of tin.
(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)
Perrault scaled it by a miracle, while François prayed for just that miracle; and with every thong and sled lashing and the last bit of harness rove into a long rope, the dogs were hoisted, one by one, to the cliff crest.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
"But if I were to go to them, and they only looked at me coldly, and whispered sneeringly amongst each other, and then dropped off and left me one by one, what then? Would you go with them?"
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
The hunting was perilous; yet the boats, lowered day after day, were swallowed up in the grey obscurity, and were seen no more till nightfall, and often not till long after, when they would creep in like sea-wraiths, one by one, out of the grey.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
It is not in my power to retrace, one by one, all the weary phases of distress of mind through which I passed.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
"I wish I knew where all these pretty things would go when Aunt March dies," she said, as she slowly replaced the shining rosary and shut the jewel cases one by one.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
