by the numbers
prep_phraseEtymology
The origin of this phrase goes back to the American Revolutionary War where a book containing numbered positions for rifle and bayonet practice was used to train soldiers. In the book, each diagram was numbered.
Definitions
exactly, precisely, or in a formulaic way.
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for by the numbers. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA