to kill by inches

The Velloziaceae have evolved a woody stem which is covered with a layer of adventitious roots mingled with the fibres of the old leaf sheaths;

[…] who fancy that they know a country from the descriptions of these who have run through it with a road-book and a dictionary, and return home to publish their tour.

But this goddeſs [Minerva], when conſidered as elevating all things, in conjunction with other divinities, to one demiurgus, and ordering and diſpoſing the univerſe together with her father;—according to the former of theſe employments, ſhe is called the philoſophic goddeſs; but, according to the latter, philopolemic, or a lover of contention. For, conſidered as unifically connecting all paternal wiſdom, ſhe is philoſophic; but, conſidered as uniformly adminiſtering all contrariety, ſhe is very properly called philopolemic.