gradually

adv

Etymology: Etymology tree English gradual Middle English -ly English -ly English gradually From gradual + -ly.

1. In a gradual manner; making slow progress; slowly.

   “The most likely conclusion, the researchers say, is that the Levallois method was not taken to Eurasia by African migrants, but evolved there gradually and independently.”

   “The instrument of this dumbing down in Nineteen Eighty-Four was Newspeak, the official language of the English Socialist Party (Ingsoc). Newspeak was a sort of Totalitarian Esperanto that sought gradually to diminish the range of what was thinkable by eliminating, contracting and manufacturing words.”

2. by degrees

   “Horns, upon the due accession of Moisture, doth gradually become Soft.”