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
I haue begd to maintaine me the better part of the waye, onely because I would intermit no time from my pursute in going backe for monie.
From The Vnfortunate Traveller, or The Life Of Jack Wilton With An Essay On The Life And Writings Of Thomas Nash By Edmund Gosse by Edmund Gosse
Again and again did Dr. Browne, brigade surgeon, who concerned himself for her like a brother, advise her to consider her weakness, and intermit her exhausting duties.
From Mary S. Peake The Colored Teacher at Fortress Monroe by Lewis C. (Lewis Conger) Lockwood
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 Jacob Abbott
It must not be supposed, however, that this private sorrow induced Mrs Twitter selfishly to forget the poor, or intermit her labours among them.
From Dusty Diamonds Cut and Polished A Tale of City Arab Life and Adventure by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Stitch must be intermitted, being made with two crooked Needles threaded at each end with the same Thread.
From The Compleat Surgeon or, the whole Art of Surgery explain'd in a most familiar Method. by Charles Gabriel Le Clerc
Moreover, the contact of her head with mine made me suffer so much that I am absolutely sure it was not intermitted for a single moment.
From Mysterious Psychic Forces An Account of the Author's Investigations in Psychical Research, Together with Those of Other European Savants by Camille Flammarion
His days of "literary loafing" allowed him to enjoy the pleasures of friendship which during his periods of work were necessarily, to some extent, intermitted.
From William Hickling Prescott by Harry Thurston Peck
For nearly an hour, the quarrel continued with intermitted truces of silence.
From The Indian Drum by Edwin Balmer
Judging from the event, we may conclude that the morbid humours had begun to leave his nerves, and to concentrate for a fit—so long intermitted and so much needed—of his hereditary gout.
From Chapters in the History of the Insane in the British Isles by Daniel Hack Tuke
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
A certain Person, who purposely sunned himself for a considerable Time, in the clear Day of an intermitting tertian Fever, underwent the Assault of an Apoplexy, which carried him off the following Day.
From Advice to the people in general, with regard to their health by S. A. D. (Samuel Auguste David) Tissot
He was not ill above four or five days; an old hurt in his leg, which has been some time healed up, broke out again, and put him into an intermitting fever.
From Rupert Prince Palatine by Eva Scott
But whenever the intermitting Fever is simple and uncombined, it ever has, and ever will render the Patient all possible Service.
From Advice to the people in general, with regard to their health by S. A. D. (Samuel Auguste David) Tissot
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 Edward Pollock Anshutz
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