by turns

Idioms  

1. Alternately, one after another, as in She is by turns cheerful, serious, and sad. [First half of 1500s]

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Example Sentences

As Simon Elliott describes in his biography “The African Emperor,” Severus was a mercurial and contradictory character, capable by turns of savagery, cunning, wit and generosity, and always blessed with a sense of the theatrical.

From The Wall Street Journal

Septimius Severus was capable by turns of savagery, cunning, wit and generosity.

From The Wall Street Journal

The book is by turns brilliant, provocative, digressive and dull—abounding in talent but confusingly at odds with itself.

From The Wall Street Journal

“Billy Preston: That’s the Way God Planned It” is, by turns, heartbreaking and inspirational.

From Salon

By turns hangdog and defiant, this version of JFK Jr. is a little boy lost, positioned as a victim of his name and his mother’s expectations — on top of the unsuitable girlfriends, she doesn’t think much of his decision to leave law and start a magazine.

From Los Angeles Times