verb
Other Word Forms
- intermitter noun
- intermittingly adverb
- intermittor noun
- unintermitted adjective
- unintermitting adjective
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!
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.
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
They came, to the number of thirty or forty; but not for their presence did the invisible revellers intermit their nocturnal visit.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 97, November, 1865 by Various
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
General Scott, nevertheless, though equally anxious to terminate the conflict, did not for a moment intermit his military vigilance.
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
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.
