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
The solemn child, who proved, at closer view, to have an unusual beauty of pink cheeks, blue eyes, and reddish hair, did not intermit his serious gaze at his fingers.
From Old Crow by Alice Brown
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
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
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
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 last three or four years since Mr. Harmer's declared intentions relative to Sophy and yourselves, they have very much intermitted their visits, and only returned on the news of their brother's first paralytic seizure.
From A Search For A Secret (Vol 2 of 3) A Novel by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty
But the stern resistance of the natives was not intermitted.
For nearly an hour, the quarrel continued with intermitted truces of silence.
From The Indian Drum by Edwin Balmer
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
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
Good-sense will allow of some intermitting Fevers, but then the Fit must be short.
From A Character of King Charles the Second by George Savile, Marquis of Halifax
But it happens, sometimes that a distinctly intermitting neuralgia occurs as an early symptom of phthisis; in fact, where there is a predisposition to neurotic affections, I believe that this is not very uncommon.
From Neuralgia and the Diseases that Resemble it by Francis E. Anstie
This Disease is sometimes combined too with an intermitting Fever; in which Case the Dysentery must be removed first, and the intermittent afterwards.
From Advice to the people in general, with regard to their health by S. A. D. (Samuel Auguste David) Tissot
"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)
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.
