Fitful
adjective
Happening or appearing in a way that's not regular.
She had a fitful night's sleep.
adjective
Happening or appearing in a way that's not regular.
She had a fitful night's sleep.
Definition 1 of 1
Pro Tip 1/3Frequency Matters
Use 'fitful' when something occurs in unpredictable bursts rather than consistently.
His concentration was fitful, waning every few minutes.
Pro Tip 2/3Negative Nuance
'Fitful' often implies discomfort or instability regarding the situation being described.
The baby's fitful cries worried the new parents.
Pro Tip 3/3Not for Positives
It's unusual to use 'fitful' with positive events; it typically describes disturbances or interruptions.
The artist's career was marked by a fitful success, with long periods of obscurity.
Compare with
discontinuouserraticintermittentpatchyregularsporadicsteadyuneven
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After cutting her arm with a broken glass, she fell into a fitful, exhausted sleep on the railway station platform.
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The best way to help is...
After cutting her arm with a broken glass, she fell into a fitful, exhausted sleep on the railway station platform.
Example 1 of 1
Quote examples
Mahavira
If one undertakes retrospection of the day's events, one must do it regularly at the appointed hour, not fitfully, not doing it today, neglecting to do it tomorrow and the day after and then taking it up again on the fourth day. Such irregular practice is not conducive to the confirmation of the habit of retrospection.
Quote examples
Ta-Nehisi Coates
American Journalist
Obama's presence opened a new field for writers, and what began as curiosity about the man himself eventually expanded into curiosity about the community he had so consciously made his home and all the old, fitfully slumbering questions he'd awakened about American identity.
Quote examples
Steve Erickson
American Novelist
In the culture at large, the war over science fiction's creative validity has been long since won, but guardians at the gates of literature, movies, and TV linger unconvinced, even as other genres fitfully transcend critical perceptions of insubstantiality.
Quote examples
Anthony Minghella
British Director
I work fitfully, in hope rather than in expectation, invent methods which last a week, and fill notebooks with tiny, illegible writing which often defies my own attempts to decipher it.
Quote examples
H. G. Wells
English Author
Man is the unnatural animal, the rebel child of nature, and more and more does he turn himself against the harsh and fitful hand that reared him.
Quote examples
Mahavira
If one undertakes retrospection of the day's events, one must do it regularly at the appointed hour, not fitfully, not doing it today, neglecting to do it tomorrow and the day after and then taking it up again on the fourth day. Such irregular practice is not conducive to the confirmation of the habit of retrospection.
Quote examples
Ta-Nehisi Coates
American Journalist
Obama's presence opened a new field for writers, and what began as curiosity about the man himself eventually expanded into curiosity about the community he had so consciously made his home and all the old, fitfully slumbering questions he'd awakened about American identity.
Quote examples
Steve Erickson
American Novelist
In the culture at large, the war over science fiction's creative validity has been long since won, but guardians at the gates of literature, movies, and TV linger unconvinced, even as other genres fitfully transcend critical perceptions of insubstantiality.
Quote examples
Anthony Minghella
British Director
I work fitfully, in hope rather than in expectation, invent methods which last a week, and fill notebooks with tiny, illegible writing which often defies my own attempts to decipher it.
Quote examples
H. G. Wells
English Author
Man is the unnatural animal, the rebel child of nature, and more and more does he turn himself against the harsh and fitful hand that reared him.
Example 1 of 5
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