by the day
24
2.3
- idiom
:
por día
- You're getting older by the day.
- growing by the day
- more by the day
I also learned that this is becoming more true by the day.
- I also learned that this is becoming more true by the day.
- But it is a hopeless task and he is losing supporters by the day.
- Like the past year where I like to describe it very much as airplane mode where you're just doing things by the day to get whatever you got to get done.
- While the Dutch do have superior firepower, their grip on Indonesia seems to weaken by the day.
- to have a change and they want to. Yeah, that gets that situation to me is getting weirder and weirder by the day because
- This plane was so light and so fast and so powerful and he felt his confidence growing by the day.
- So we're talking about how the US is becoming more and more divided and just kind of more insane by the day.
- I mean, we have our fair share of issues and in recent days and months and years they're, they're growing by the day.
- I'm like, just really getting more and more paranoid by the day about how often and quickly this goes wrong.
- Mind you, Jim Cramer, Tank, Tesla, Taylor Swift almost got ISIS, and a recession is getting closer by the day.
- It's the best ally of the United States and its importance is growing by the day because our capacities in the information world are growing by the day.
Examples
-
You pay by the day or by the week?
-
Yes, they're getting worse by the day, and so is their base, right along with them.
Blog text (7) -
It's growing larger by the day.
-
We have to deal with trends that change not by the year, but by the week, by the day, even by the hour.
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And if you pay by the day, it's due at noon.
-
The company charges either by the day, the ton, or works on a contract.
Academic text (1997) -
My mother's getting weaker by the day.
-
Many of these schools are improving their virtual libraries by the day.
Academic text (2007) -
Clearly, he was growing poorer by the day, not only in the state of his finances but in spirit.
Fiction book (1994) -
The project is progressing significantly by the day, making it easier to meet the deadline.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Happening or done every day
20
2.5
Part of your normal routine that happens every day
How Often
Surface Forms
Morphology
by + the + day
The meaning 'for each day' is directly derivable from combining 'by' (marking rate or unit) with 'day' (a time unit), with 'the' serving as a definite article. This per-unit construction is cross-linguistically common and follows standard English patterns (e.g., 'by the hour', 'by the week'), so a B1 learner who knows the parts will readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
By the day comes from the simple idea of paying or counting one day at a time; imagine a hotel putting a price tag on each calendar day, and that's why it now means 'for each day' or 'on a daily basis'.