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 set, as it were, the small tick of my own poor watch by it—which private register would thump or intermit in agreement with these indications.
From Notes of a Son and Brother by Henry James
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
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
Napoleon continued, however, the frequency of his correspondence, and, notwithstanding the jealousy of Maria Louisa, did not at all intermit his visits.
From Josephine Makers of History by John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott
Indeed, the lava was now almost ceasing to flow, and the bombardment of pumice-stone and fiery cinders had intermitted a little.
From The White Man's Foot by Grant Allen
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
For nearly an hour, the quarrel continued with intermitted truces of silence.
From The Indian Drum by Edwin Balmer
His successors, the Baron D'Avaugour and M. de Mézy, however, soon took up the intermitted quarrel on behalf of the State, until the new order of government in 1663.
From Old Quebec The Fortress of New France by Claude Glennon Bryan
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
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 interrupter is the arrangement for intermitting the primary current.
From Hertzian Wave Wireless Telegraphy by John Ambrose Fleming
I felt the intermitting pulse,—I watched the failing breath; yet so gradual and so complete was her decay, that I knew not the moment of her departure.
From Discipline by Mary Brunton
I was not glad to feel the intermitting tenor supplant that soprano.
From Charles Auchester, Volume 1 of 2 by Elizabeth Sheppard
Now all was hush, and you might have supposed he had fallen asleep, for in that hush you heard what seemed an intermitting snore.
From Recreations of Christopher North, Volume I (of 2) by John Lyde Wilson
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