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
It enables him to intermit labour in times of sickness and sorrow and old age, and in those extremes of heat and cold during which active labour is little less than physical pain.
From The Map of Life Conduct and Character by Lecky, William Edward Hartpole
I am obliged to acknowledge my belief that Mrs. Loraine's messenger was exceedingly unreasonable, for he did not intermit his hammering long enough to ascertain whether any one was coming to the door or not.
From Seek and Find or The Adventures of a Smart Boy by Optic, Oliver
Meanwhile, the Franks did not for a moment intermit their march towards Assur, and the Saracens, who sought in vain to shake their steady ranks, called them 'a nation of iron.'
From Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 366, April, 1846 by Various
Let Euclid rest, and Archimedes pause: intermit for a day your severe mathematical studies.
From Minor Poems by Milton by Milton, John
For nearly an hour, the quarrel continued with intermitted truces of silence.
From The Indian Drum by Balmer, Edwin
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
During the days of kwedi the men go in the mornings to fish; while they are away at the work, the weeping is intermitted lest in some way it spoil the fishing.
From Fetichism in West Africa Forty Years' Observations of Native Customs and Superstitions by Nassau, Robert Hamill
The men, under the lead of the chaplain, built a large and commodious house of logs, in which religious services—never intermitted, when possible to be held—and literary exercises were held.
From Historical sketch of the Fifteenth Regiment, New Jersey Volunteers First Brigade, First Division, Sixth Corps by Anonymous
It consequently, though somewhat invigorated at first, intermitted more and more toward the close, working, when it did work, awkwardly and with friction, until the physical collapse came, and the end was reached.
From The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte Vol. IV. (of IV.) by Sloane, William Milligan
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
Good-sense will allow of some intermitting Fevers, but then the Fit must be short.
From A Character of King Charles the Second by Halifax, George Savile, Marquis of
“Indeed,” replied Johnny, without looking up, or intermitting his sneaking, restless walk from one corner of the room to the other.
From Tales from Blackwood Volume 5 by Various
Drawing and cutting pains from one iliac crest to the other as if a knife had traversed the abdomen; often intermitting and always returning. lower extremities.
From New, Old, and Forgotten Remedies: Papers by Many Writers by Anshutz, Edward Pollock
Some little scalding of urine; flow not so free and full, intermitting slightly, as if I had some calculus in the bladder which interfered with continuous flow.
From New, Old, and Forgotten Remedies: Papers by Many Writers by Anshutz, Edward Pollock
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.
