little by little / dribs and drabs

[Mnemon]

a. People started to gradually enter the room.

b. Little by little people started to enter the room.

c. People started to enter the room in dribs and drabs.


Do they all work for you?

Thanks.

 

[probus]

They are all gramnatical and understandable, but not perfectly natural. I think in a, the adverb is misplaced. People gradually started, not gradually entered. In b I would use one by one rather than little by little because people are countable. And I suspect dribs and drabs has faded or is fading away. My mother (born 1920) used it, but I haven't seen or heard it recently.

 

[probus]

I must correct my earlier response about dribs and drabs. According to Google N-grams that phrase has been steadily growing in popularity except for a slight dip recently.

https://books.google.com/ngrams/gra...moothing=3&direct_url=t1;,Dribs and drabs;,c0