A trompicones

A trompicones
 

Hacer algo a trompicones es hacer algo por tramos, ahora hago una parte, dentro de un rato, otra parte etc...
English?

In English perhaps to do something "little by little", or "bit by bit"...

Yes, but it is less "controlled" I'd say, salió del bar dando trompicones = he came stumbling o staggering o lurching out of the bar;

a trompicones is more like in fits and starts.

Like an old car that is hard to get going..., or a little kid who memorized a poem and now says it, forgets, says a whole section...

I agree with hermit though.

Yes, (as I said) but it somehow misses the "difficulty" of the Spanish, or at least the helter-skelter, or even chaotic sense the Spanish expression conveys.
DRAE gives,trompicón. (De trompico).
1. m. Tropezón o paso tambaleante de una persona.
2. m. Tumbo o vaivén de un carruaje.
3. m. Porrazo, golpe fuerte.
a trompicones.
1. loc. adv. A tropezones, a empujones, a golpes.
2. loc. adv. Con discontinuidad, con dificultades.
Real Academia Española © Todos los derechos reservados

Moliner gives,
trompicón m. Tropezón.
A trompicones. Con discontinuidad. Con dificultades.

But that is another meaning the word has. That's what I was agreeing with hermit. :)

Okay, I agree with that, but the "little by little" and or "bit by bit" is something (at least the way I get it in English) done with a lack of continuity... that could be by the way the person does it, i.e., laziness, not being on a hurry or whatever reason. The Spanish expression includes the connotation of being hard, or not as smoothly as one would like.

Got it. :)