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
Though often in feeble health, he seldom allowed physical languor to intermit his work.
From History of Rationalism Embracing a Survey of the Present State of Protestant Theology by J. F. (John Fletcher) Hurst
Only in the early morning, and for an hour, or an hour and a half after lunch, did Claude intermit his labors.
From The Way of Ambition by J. H. Gardner Soper
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 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
The men, under the lead of the chaplain, built a large and commodious house of logs, in which religious services—never intermitted, when possible to be held—and literary exercises were held.
From Historical sketch of the Fifteenth Regiment, New Jersey Volunteers First Brigade, First Division, Sixth Corps by Anonymous
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
The fierce equinoctial blasts which that year had lasted for more than a month, were followed by a fortnight of fitful, heavy rain, intermitted by sudden gales and stormy showers.
From The Pobratim A Slav Novel by P. Jones
But the stern resistance of the natives was not intermitted.
But nature had given him a slimness and an actual grace he found, in his private self-scrutiny, almost girlish, nor could he wholly outwit and supplement her by the athletic training he never intermitted.
From Old Crow by Alice Brown
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
At that period the pump windlass had not superseded the intermitting efforts of the old handspike.
From Toilers of the Sea by Victor Hugo
The interrupter is the arrangement for intermitting the primary current.
From Hertzian Wave Wireless Telegraphy by John Ambrose Fleming
The pulse.—Observe if it is slow or rapid, full, weak and thin, if irregular or intermitting.
From How to Care for the Insane A Manual for Nurses by William D. Granger
“Indeed,” replied Johnny, without looking up, or intermitting his sneaking, restless walk from one corner of the room to the other.
From Tales from Blackwood Volume 5 by Various
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