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
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
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 Erasmus Darwin
I have repeatedly observed, that as soon as the honey harvest fails, the bees intermit their labors in building new comb, even when large portions of their hive are unfilled.
From Langstroth on the Hive and the Honey-Bee A Bee Keeper's Manual by L. L. (Lorenzo Lorraine) Langstroth
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 John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott
The heart-sounds were so weak that the presence or absence of bruit could not be safely predicated; meantime, the pulsations intermitted in a most alarming manner.
From Neuralgia and the Diseases that Resemble it by Francis E. Anstie
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
One, two, three—the hearers counted the drum beats, time and again, in their intermitted booming, to twenty-four.
From The Indian Drum by Edwin Balmer
For the same reason the wailing is again intermitted while the grave is being dug.
From Fetichism in West Africa Forty Years' Observations of Native Customs and Superstitions by Robert Hamill Nassau
The rain, which had never intermitted, fell with dismal hopelessness.
From Checkers A Hard-luck Story by Henry M. Blossom
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
"There is no dew on the dry grass to-night, Nor damp within the shadow of the trees; The wind is intermitting, dry and light."
From Airy Fairy Lilian by Margaret Wolfe Hamilton (AKA Duchess)
Intermit′tent, intermitting or ceasing at intervals, as a fever.—adv.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various
It defeats the steady habit of exertion, but it creates spasms of irregular exertion; it ruins the natural power of life, but it developes preternatural paroxysms of intermitting power.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 57, No. 351, January 1845 by Various
At that period the pump windlass had not superseded the intermitting efforts of the old handspike.
From Toilers of the Sea by Victor Hugo
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.
