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Webster 1913 Edition


Intermit

Inˊter-mit′

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Intermitted
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Intermitting
.]
[L.
intermittere
;
inter
between +
mittere
,
missum
, to send: cf. OE.
entremeten
to busy (one’s self) with, F.
s'entremettre
. See
Missile
.]
To cause to cease for a time, or at intervals; to interrupt; to suspend.
Pray to the gods to
intermit
the plague.
Shakespeare

Inˊter-mit′

,
Verb.
I.
To cease for a time or at intervals; to moderate; to be intermittent, as a fever.
Pope.

Webster 1828 Edition


Intermit

INTERMIT'

,
Verb.
T.
[L. intermitto; inter and mitto, to send.]
To cause to cease for a time; to interrupt; to suspend.
Pray to the gods, to intermit the plague
That needs must light on this ingratitude.

INTERMIT'

,
Verb.
I.
To cease for a time; to go off at intervals; as a fever. A tertian fever intermits every other day. The pulse sometimes intermits for a second of time.

Definition 2024


intermit

intermit

English

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, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, 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

Related terms