A love sparked suddenly ended inchmeal.
It is easier to start a large fire quickly than to put one out quickly. Much the same, I believe love generally surrenders only slowly.
Inchmeal is a fun word. I hope that someone or something popular brings it back into regular usage.
inchmeal (adv.)
“by inches, inch by inch,” 1580s, from inch (n.1) + Middle English meal “fixed time, period of time, occasion” (see meal (n.1), and compare piecemeal).
also from 1580s
late 12c., mēl, “an occasion of taking food, a feast, a supply of food taken at one time for relief of hunger,” also (c. 1200) “an appointed time for eating;” from Old English mæl, Anglian mēl, “fixed time, occasion; a meal,” from Proto-Germanic *mela- (source also of Old Frisian mel “time;” Middle Dutch mael, Dutch maal “time; meal;” Old Norse mal “measure, time, meal;” German Mal “time,” Mahl “meal;” Gothic mel “time, hour”), from PIE *me-lo-, from root *me- (2) “to measure.”
Original sense of “time” is preserved in English in piecemeal; compare Middle English poundmele “by pounds at a time; generously.” Meals-on-wheels for a social service offering home delivery of food to persons unable to purchase or prepare their own is attested by 1952 (from 1947 as a mobile food delivery service without reference to social services). Meal ticket first attested 1865 in literal sense of “ticket of admission to a dining hall;” figurative sense of “source of income or livelihood” is from 1899.
Dusty Writes 