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 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 Oliver Optic
Hitherto it had been her aunt's scheme of life to intermit in some slight degree the acerbity of her usual demeanour in periods of illness.
From Linda Tressel by Anthony Trollope
He himself would never intermit his work for a single day.
From A Book of Sibyls Miss Barbauld, Miss Edgeworth, Mrs Opie, Miss Austen by Anne Thackeray Ritchie
Though banished for a time from his seat in the States General by the Catholics, Revolutionists, and Rationalists, he did not intermit his labors to lead back the masses to evangelical piety.
From History of Rationalism Embracing a Survey of the Present State of Protestant Theology by J. F. (John Fletcher) Hurst
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 Henry Digby Beste
His breath, which had kept pace with the quick beating of his heart, intermitted, hesitated, was lost!
From Gabriel Conroy by Bert Harte
For nearly an hour, the quarrel continued with intermitted truces of silence.
From The Indian Drum by Edwin Balmer
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
To the Honourable Knight Sir G. P. SIR, I Would have intermitted this week without writing, if I had not found the name of my Lady Huntington in your Letter.
From Letters to Severall Persons of Honour by John Donne
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
The water is black and heavy, and subject to intermitting storms.
From Toilers of the Sea by Victor Hugo
There are several Kinds of intermitting Fevers, which take their different Names from the Interval or different Space of Time, in which the Fits return.
From Advice to the people in general, with regard to their health by S. A. D. (Samuel Auguste David) Tissot
His extremities were cold, a chilling clammy sweat stood upon his face, his respiration was short and interrupted, his pulse weak and intermitting.
From Alida or, Miscellaneous Sketches of Incidents During the Late American War. Founded on Fact by Amelia Stratton Comfield
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
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.
