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
It must not be supposed, however, that this private sorrow induced Mrs Twitter selfishly to forget the poor, or intermit her labours among them.
From Dusty Diamonds Cut and Polished A Tale of City Arab Life and Adventure by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The bell doth toll for him that thinks it doth; and though it intermit again, yet from that minute that that occasion wrought upon him, he is united to God.
From Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions Together with Death's Duel by John Donne
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
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 doctors say in their account that it was while they intermitted the holding of our feet.
From The Death-Blow to Spiritualism Being the True Story of the Fox Sisters by Reuben Briggs Davenport
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 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
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
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
To this Noircarmes assented, but without intermitting his fire for a moment.
From History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, Vols. 1 and 2 by William Hickling Prescott
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
The trees that stood in front of the house ever and anon yielded to the intermitting gusts of wind, and bowed their heads as though in submission to a superior power.
From Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. V, October, 1850, Volume I. by
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.
