one by one

Idioms  

1. Also, one at a time. Individually in succession, as in The ducklings jumped into the pond one by one, or One at a time they went into the office. Formerly also put as one and one and one after one, this idiom dates from about a.d. 1000.

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Example Sentences

As I try to get some food in my stomach, my family leaves me one by one.

From Literature

She was prodding the cheeses with her bony fingers, sniffing them one by one.

From Literature

And it won’t work to find them and squish them one by one.

From Literature

"We are deciphering the 'identity card' of tumors, by identifying, one by one, the key variables that determine the evolution of the disease," explains Pittet.

From Science Daily

All morning, one by one, parents had been picking up their drenched Scouts.

From Literature