phrase

• 1US Following standard operating procedure.

  ‘Thankfully, this new film avoids playing by the numbers and follows its own dead-on instincts.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘It's what I'm beginning to call news by the numbers.’
  • ‘Will Smith's Hitch is a racist, homophobic, by the numbers, boring romantic comedy filled with blatant product placements.’
  • ‘If we're going by the numbers, why not have a party platform asserting that the United States is ‘a white nation’?’
  • ‘And a key fact here is nobody has said that the Army hasn't played this thing exactly by the rules, exactly by the numbers.’
  • ‘So given the high stakes involved in maintaining his relative ‘sainthood’ set against a background of alleged infidelity, ordinarily you could expect Beckham to be playing by the numbers.’
  • ‘Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Love Actually: it was a skilful piece of work, a series of invariably thin stories skating along on the bankable watchability of a talented ensemble cast doing it by the numbers.’
  • ‘‘The way companies are managed is more by the numbers now,’ says Chuck Lucier, senior vice president emeritus at Booz Allen Hamilton.’
  • ‘It's rather sad that Steve McQueen's career had to end with this turkey of a film - an effort that's poorly written, directed with no flair whatsoever, and acted by the numbers.’
  • ‘Most of the interviews you do to promote something are by the numbers.’

  1. 1.1All together with a shouted-out count.
     More example sentences

     • ‘You count off seven to ten seconds by the numbers, give a wing wag, and break left and down in a 90-degree bank.’