day-by-day
adjective
taking place each day; daily.
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day-by-day
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day by day
day by dayOn each successive day, daily, as in Day by day he's getting better. Percy Bysshe Shelley used this expression, first recorded in 1362, in Adonais (1821): “fear and grief ... consume us day by day.”
day-by-day
American
[dey-bahy-dey]
/ ˈdeɪ baɪˈdeɪ /
adjective
day by day
Idioms
Etymology
Origin of day-by-day
Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Rovere, on the other hand, found the book to be “barren of ideas and imagination,” and “scarcely more interesting or enlightening than the day-by-day newspaper accounts.”
From Salon • Mar. 7, 2026
"I've said it for a while, I'm taking it day-by-day, series-by-series, and we'll see where things land," said Smith, who has played 122 Tests and scored more than 10,000 runs.
From Barron's • Jan. 3, 2026
Along the way, I discovered and began to practice the day-by-day rituals of Judaism, which helped me understand the larger fabric that clothes all religions: faith.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 23, 2025
"But it's the families and getting justice that keeps us going day-by-day."
From BBC • Jan. 23, 2025
Whether, with the menace of foreign invasion removed, enough day-by-day detailed energy would exist for the reorganization of industry, is a doubtful question, as to which only time can decide.
From The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism by Russell, Bertrand
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
