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 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 worthy bishop, who was certainly at any time more at home in the cabinet than in the church, did not intermit his toil or yield to discouragement.
From History of the Rise of the Huguenots Volume 2 by Henry Martyn Baird
Meanwhile, the Franks did not for a moment intermit their march towards Assur, and the Saracens, who sought in vain to shake their steady ranks, called them 'a nation of iron.'
From Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 366, April, 1846 by Various
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
The clapping of his hands was intermitted by a violent clapping of the chest on which he sat, first on the top, then on the sides and end.
From North-Pole Voyages by Zachariah Atwell Mudge
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
The habits of study are not easily retained during the long stretches of watch-keeping intermitted with hilarious trips ashore.
From An Ocean Tramp by William McFee
The frog chirped again from the trees, and the far-off owl hooted in the wood, resuming his melancholy song, that had been so briefly intermitted.
From Horse-Shoe Robinson A Tale of the Tory Ascendency by John Pendleton Kennedy
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 John Pendleton Kennedy
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
Mrs. B. Springs which do not constantly flow, are called intermitting, and are occasioned by the reservoir being imperfectly supplied.
From Conversations on Natural Philosophy, in which the Elements of that Science are Familiarly Explained by Thomas P. Jones
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
The following day I was better: the doctors found my pulse regular, and without any intermitting symptom.
From Adventures in the Philippine Islands by Paul P. de La Gironière
Some little scalding of urine; flow not so free and full, intermitting slightly, as if I had some calculus in the bladder which interfered with continuous flow.
From New, Old, and Forgotten Remedies: Papers by Many Writers by Edward Pollock Anshutz
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.
