They had all the appearances of a bawdy couple slowly grinding in time to the music.

The forces that are dragging it apart grind slowly, but they are strong.

There was heavy fighting and the 8th Army slowly ground its way forward.

The dead world slowly grinds to a halt as the sun goes out after several million millennia.

Someone had reached it before them; they could see the outer hatch slowly grinding shut.

The tractor slowly grinds itself into the ground and strikes oil.

Instead of finding sudden problems you might find that progress slowly grinds to a halt.

"I've learned over the last eight years that the wheels of justice do grind slowly sometimes," he says.

The mills of the law do not grind slowly in the people's courtrooms.

While these high-profile cases slowly grind away, however, it is likely that most others will never be resolved.