fits and starts

1. To do something in “fits and starts” is to do it intermittently or sporadically: “Martina has been working on her master's thesis in fits and starts; she needs to work on it consistently.”

Example Sentences

But we need change driven by the next wave, which has its fits and starts.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Those tariffs took hold in fits and starts this summer while the US pushed countries to strike "deals".

Read more on BBC

Local officials first raised the prospect during the national reckoning on racial injustice that followed the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, but the plan has progressed in sluggish fits and starts since then.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Executives have continued to discuss offering multiple “affordable models,” though not without fits and starts.

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It's hard to get momentum when only appearing in fits and starts, but he did a decent job overall.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• desultory 
• fitful 
• infrequent 
• intermittent 
• irregular 
• isolated 
• occasional 
• random 
• rare 
• scattered 
• spotty