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
Though Franklin took every thing by the smooth handle, he did not, on that account, intermit any intensity of labor to accomplish his purposes.
From Benjamin Franklin A Picture of the Struggles of Our Infant Nation One Hundred Years Ago American Pioneers and Patriots Series by Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)
Then she must forgive, unconditionally; for it would never do to intermit all praying until somebody else should come to a right, mind.
From A Letter of Credit by Warner, Susan
Hence some fevers perfectly intermit, the stomach recovering its complete action after the torpor and consequent orgasm, which constitute the paroxysm of fever, are terminated.
From Zoonomia, Vol. II Or, the Laws of Organic Life by Darwin, Erasmus
The rain, which had never intermitted, fell with dismal hopelessness.
From Checkers A Hard-luck Story by Blossom, Henry M.
His only systematic reading was a persistent, though frequently intermitted, exploration of religious biographies and the literature of religious conversion, in preparation for the Gifford Lectures.
From The Letters of William James, Vol. II by James, William
For nearly an hour, the quarrel continued with intermitted truces of silence.
From The Indian Drum by Balmer, Edwin
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
The song was occasionally intermitted to give room to certain self-communings which the pastime suggested.
From Horse-Shoe Robinson A Tale of the Tory Ascendency by Kennedy, John Pendleton
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
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 Tissot, S. A. D. (Samuel Auguste David)
He was cold—a chilling 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 Comfield, Amelia Stratton
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 Tissot, S. A. D. (Samuel Auguste David)
When the pulses are slow, regular, and nearly natural they usually become frequent, small, irregular, sometimes intermitting.
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.
