How to Use one by one in a Sentence

one by one

idiom
  • For about half of those, the pills have to be counted out one by one.
    Marley Jay, NBC News, 31 Oct. 2023
  • The coffins were carried in and the names were read: one by one by one by one by one.
    David Remnick, The New Yorker, 28 Oct. 2023
  • Step 4: Clean and Dry Pull the silver pieces out of the mixture one by one.
    Kate McGregor, House Beautiful, 14 Apr. 2023
  • The balloons were then popped, one by one, to fully expose the 26-year-old artist.
    Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, 15 Mar. 2024
  • The dolls appear, one by one, coated in sand and muck and seaweed.
    Sarah Bahari, Dallas News, 8 Mar. 2023
  • Circles formed and one by one bold and gilled performed.
    Riley Van Steward, Forbes, 26 Mar. 2023
  • And the crew members start to get picked off one by one, always after the sun has gone down.
    Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter, 10 Aug. 2023
  • Naomi Campbell came by and caught me learning to climb the steps, one by one.
    Hamish Bowles, Vogue, 25 Apr. 2024
  • They will be issued one by one, starting at 10:00 a.m., with the Trump case most likely to be the last.
    Elizabeth Both, NBC News, 1 July 2024
  • When the team was announced, one by one the lucky few bounded from backstage and bathed in the spotlight.
    Candace Buckner, Washington Post, 30 June 2024
  • Other buildings would be added on a one by one basis to spread out the costs.
    Kelly G. Richardson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Apr. 2023
  • The game involves guessing words that are acted out one by one to form a phrase.
    USA TODAY, 17 July 2023
  • But one by one, all of them faltered as the virus mutated.
    Emily Mullin, WIRED, 8 Feb. 2023
  • Thousands of stones, both large and small, carried one by one, fortify the walls of the Tiny Farm.
    Gautami Reddy, Architectural Digest, 29 July 2024
  • The judge is shown placing medals around the necks of the children one by one but then skipping past the only Black girl there.
    Melissa Noel, Essence, 26 Sep. 2023
  • One person wears the shirt with the other puts a Q-Tip in the straw one by one and blows it out onto their target.
    Leah Campano, Seventeen, 8 Apr. 2023
  • Mayhem broke out as police took down tents, one by one.
    Kelly Meyerhofer, Journal Sentinel, 2 May 2024
  • Slowly, all the fake answers disappeared from the screen one by one.
    Luke Caldwell, Scientific American, 16 Jan. 2024
  • Then, one by one, members of the tribe began to rise and share stories about Mary Goudy-Settler.
    Tony Schick, ProPublica, 28 Dec. 2022
  • So throughout the movie we’re being stalked by orangutans who are killing, one by one, the team off with throwing stars.
    Samantha Bergeson, IndieWire, 9 July 2024
  • Don't waste time making all of your guests' favorite cocktails one by one.
    Halee Miller Van Ryswyk, Better Homes & Gardens, 29 July 2024
  • Inside were six hidden bottles of Smirnoff Ice, worth $12, and the clerk began pulling them out one by one.
    Megan O’Matz, ProPublica, 25 May 2023
  • The Orb is there too, chrome, gleaming, mounted at eye-level on a pole, waiting to scan us, one by one.
    WIRED, 28 July 2023
  • Artist Yoko Ono can be seen in the film placing chrysanthemums on the ground, one by one, for passersby to notice.
    Armani Syed, TIME, 31 July 2024
  • After an hour of bumping and grinding, people fall out and sit down, one by one.
    Jonathan Van Meter, SPIN, 8 Apr. 2023
  • The Starship depot will linger in low-Earth orbit as tankers arrive one by one.
    Stephen Clark, Ars Technica, 17 Nov. 2023
  • But even with all that sugar, the textures announce themselves one by one.
    Jenn Harris, Los Angeles Times, 8 May 2023
  • First the comments on the article page started popping in, one by one.
    Nate Rogers, Los Angeles Times, 1 Aug. 2024
  • Instead, simply ask 3 follow up questions about my idea, one by one, then wait for instruction on the next steps.
    Jodie Cook, Forbes, 1 Oct. 2024
  • Vassos appeared delighted as the men stepped out one by one, each determined to make a colorful first impression.
    Greg Braxton, Los Angeles Times, 9 Sep. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'one by one.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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