step by step

step by step idiom
By degrees, as in You'll have to go through this recipe step by step. This idiom transfers putting one foot in front of the other to other kinds of progress. [c. 1700]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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