verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of intermit
1535–45; < Latin intermittere to leave a space between, drop (for a while), leave off, equivalent to inter- inter- + mittere to send, let go
Explanation
To intermit is to stop doing something for a while. You might intermit your Spanish classes this summer so you can take a full-time job as a lifeguard. Intermit is a formal or old-fashioned way to say "pause," or sometimes "pause periodically." It's much more common to use the adjective intermittent for things that start and stop, and both words come from the Latin inter, "between," and mittere, "to send." If you regularly intermit your dog training sessions, it's going to take a lot longer to teach Spot to heel!
Vocabulary lists containing intermit
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
With the cold war's intermit tent crises no longer seeming so momentous, one eye of U.S. foreign policy has shifted to the long view.
From Time Magazine Archive
He could intermit the action of a Parliament for a time, sending the members to their homes until he should summon them again.
From Charles I Makers of History by Abbott, Jacob
He was playing in a piece called The Black Doctor at the time, and did not intermit his representations on account of his misfortune.
From Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 15, No. 89, May, 1875 by Various
The worthy bishop, who was certainly at any time more at home in the cabinet than in the church, did not intermit his toil or yield to discouragement.
From History of the Rise of the Huguenots Volume 2 by Baird, Henry Martyn
Then she must forgive, unconditionally; for it would never do to intermit all praying until somebody else should come to a right, mind.
From A Letter of Credit by Warner, Susan
Indeed, the lava was now almost ceasing to flow, and the bombardment of pumice-stone and fiery cinders had intermitted a little.
From The White Man's Foot by Allen, Grant
It was a nightly ceremony which had not been intermitted since the two came to the Point.
From Woven with the Ship A Novel of 1865 by Brady, Cyrus Townsend
One, two, three—the hearers counted the drum beats, time and again, in their intermitted booming, to twenty-four.
From The Indian Drum by Balmer, Edwin
His only systematic reading was a persistent, though frequently intermitted, exploration of religious biographies and the literature of religious conversion, in preparation for the Gifford Lectures.
From The Letters of William James, Vol. II by James, William
Breugne made me observe that his pulse intermitted.
From Four Years in France or, Narrative of an English Family's Residence there during that Period; Preceded by some Account of the Conversion of the Author to the Catholic Faith by Beste, Henry Digby
Mrs Ndisang said "no reason was given" as to why intermission was refused "but it was very clear intermitting was not an option".
From BBC ● Apr. 24, 2023
I waited long months, watch in hand, for the latter to show some sign of intermitting these amiabilities to such an enemy—the very smallest would have sufficed for me to throw myself back upon it.
From The Letters of Henry James, Vol. II by James, Henry
These Countries are particularly subject to intermitting Fevers; of which I shall treat briefly hereafter.
From Advice to the people in general, with regard to their health by Tissot, S. A. D. (Samuel Auguste David)
The following day I was better: the doctors found my pulse regular, and without any intermitting symptom.
From Adventures in the Philippine Islands by La Gironière, Paul P. de
The same Cause which produces these intermitting Fevers, frequently also occasions Disorders, which return periodically at the same Hour, without Shivering, without Heat, and often without any Quickness of the Pulse.
From Advice to the people in general, with regard to their health by Tissot, S. A. D. (Samuel Auguste David)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
