From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishby degreesby degreesSLOWvery slowly SYN gradually By degrees, he forced himself into a sitting position. → degree
Examples from the Corpus
by degrees• By degrees, little children grow less dependent on their parents.• This is the model on which the National Curriculum is to be created and by degrees imposed on the primary schools.• Consciousness could not have arisen by degrees.• Not all at once, but by degrees, Dada made a conquest of this stallion of modern technology.• Improvement will come by degrees.• The storm intensified by degrees until the rain was pouring down.• The downpour did not intensify by degrees but simply gushed forth with biblical fury, vertical and windless.• Let her learn about it by degrees.• Huy forced himself into a sitting position by degrees and brought the empty jar of fig liquor into vision.• For since all natural change proceeds by degrees, something changes and something remains. 