intermit

English

Etymology

From Latin intermittere, from inter- + mittere.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ɪntəˈmɪt/

Verb

intermit (third-person singular simple present intermits, present participle intermitting, simple past and past participle intermitted)

  1. (transitive, now rare) To interrupt, to stop or cease temporarily or periodically; to suspend.
    • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy: [], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970, (please specify |partition=1, 2, or 3):
      , vol. I, New York 2001, p.243:
      Idleness [] of body is nothing but a kind of of benumbing laziness, intermitting exercise, which, if we may believe Fernelius, “[] makes them unapt to do anything whatever.”
    • Shakespeare
      Pray to the gods to intermit the plague.

Derived terms

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