GRADUALLY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does gradually mean? 

• GRADUALLY (adverb)
  The adverb GRADUALLY has 1 sense:

1. in a gradual manner

  Familiarity information: GRADUALLY used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GRADUALLY (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

In a gradual manner

Synonyms:

bit by bit; gradually; step by step

Context example:

the snake moved gradually toward its victim

Pertainym:

gradual (proceeding in small stages)

 Context examples 

Life will very gradually return to normal.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

It came down gradually, and I was not hurt a bit.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

I found my terror gradually lessened, but my hatred and contempt seemed to increase.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

For years I had gradually weaned him from that drug mania which had threatened once to check his remarkable career.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

When exposed to microbially-produced acids, granite tombstones gradually become pitted as bits of rock are dissolved.

(Tales from the crypt: Life after death in a graveyard, National Science Foundation)

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has provided researchers strong evidence the moon’s volcanic activity slowed gradually instead of stopping abruptly a billion years ago.

(Evidence for Young Lunar Volcanism, NASA)

Between 1987 and 2000, the Dry Valleys experienced a period of cooling, during which mean summer temperatures steadily declined while solar radiation gradually increased.

(Extreme melt season leads to decade-long ecosystem changes in Antarctica's Dry Valleys, National Science Foundation)

After 24 months, participants were given gradually increasing amounts of peanut in a controlled environment, to assess their tolerance.

(Few people with peanut allergy tolerate peanut after stopping oral immunotherapy, National Institutes of Health)

Terrestrial change happened hundreds of thousands of years earlier and very gradually, the scientists found.

(Mass extinction of land and sea biodiversity 250 million years ago not simultaneous, National Science Foundation)

As the sun got higher, their sleep became lighter, and so they gradually one by one awoke.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)