fitfully

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English

Etymology

From fitful +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

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Adverb

fitfully (comparative more fitfully, superlative most fitfully)

  1. In a fitful manner; irregularly or unsteadily.
    Synonyms: in fits and starts; see also Thesaurus:discontinuously
    He slept fitfully, plagued by bad dreams and a persistent cough.
    • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 123, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
      The cabin lamp—taking long swings this way and that— was burning fitfully, and casting fitful shadows upon the old man’s bolted door […]
    • 1885–1886, Henry James, chapter XXXV, in The Bostonians , London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 16 February 1886, →OCLC:
      The train for Marmion left Boston at four o'clock in the afternoon, and rambled fitfully toward the southern cape, while the shadows grew long in the stony pastures […]
    • 1904, Jack London, chapter 36, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC:
      We shivered miserably throughout the night. Now and again fitfully slept, but the pain of the cold always aroused me.

Translations

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