day-by-day
adjective
taking place each day; daily.
Jump To:
-
day-by-day
-
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.
See Examples For:
"The nation's demand for change continues to grow day-by-day, getting stronger."
From Barron's ● Mar. 8, 2026
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
But the appropriators have continued their work through this period… So it’s a touch and go day-by-day analysis that we have here as a leadership team.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2025
The situation is understood to be fluid as the company attempts to get its networks back up and running, and decisions are being taken on a day-by-day basis.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2025
Except your day-by-day companionship—I'd be lonely without that, of course—I shouldn't lose anything that seems to me really worth keeping.
From The Book of Susan A Novel by Lee Wilson Dodd
In their small living room, his mother sighs: "He still has nightmares at night, and I am getting weaker day by day."
From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 2026
"The Yellow Line keeps moving day by day," said Abu Kamel Hamami who is displaced in Gaza City.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
Underneath the high pressure system sinking air compressed and warmed, lifting temperatures day by day.
From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2026
Sennott: I had to like sort of take it day by day.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026
The villagers watched in horror as, day by day, the big man shrank with illness.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
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.
