Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word
intermit. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
intermit, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
intermit in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
intermit you have here. The definition of the word
intermit will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
intermit, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
From Latin intermittere, from inter- + mittere.
Pronunciation
Verb
intermit (third-person singular simple present intermits, present participle intermitting, simple past and past participle intermitted)
- (transitive, now rare) To interrupt, to stop or cease temporarily or periodically; to suspend.
1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :Pray to the gods to intermit the plague.
- 1624, John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation XVII., in The Works of John Donne, vol. 3, ed. Henry Alford, London: John W. Parker (1839), pp. 574-5:
- The bell doth toll for him, that thinks it doth; and though it intermit again, yet from that minute, that that occasion wrought upon him, he is united to God.
1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], chapter I, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: , 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, page 243:Idleness […] of body is nothing but a kind of benumbing laziness, intermitting exercise, which, if we may believe Fernelius, “[…] makes them unapt to do anything whatever.”
Derived terms
Related terms