fitfully

[US]/'fitfəli/
Frequency: Very High

Translation

adv. in a sporadic or intermittent manner

Phrases & Collocations

sleep fitfully

Example Sentences

I just looked inertly with my tired eyes, watching the lightning, which struck fitfully and suddenly and strongly went through my body.

The wind howled fitfully throughout the night.

She slept fitfully, waking up every hour.

The old car sputtered fitfully before finally starting.

The light flickered fitfully in the abandoned building.

He breathed fitfully, struggling to catch his breath.

The fire crackled fitfully, sending sparks into the air.

The baby cried fitfully, unable to settle down.

The rain fell fitfully, with sudden heavy downpours.

The engine coughed fitfully before stalling completely.

The clock ticked fitfully, skipping seconds at a time.

Real-world Examples

There was no daylight at all so I slept fitfully.

Source: Complete isolation

The ladies also talked politics, though more fitfully.

Source: Middlemarch (Part Five)

Nevertheless, Mrs. Adams remained fitfully an optimist in the matter.

Source: Lonely Heart (Part 1)

They moved fitfully in and out, like Dr. Almore's thin nervous hands pulling at the edges of his curtains.

Source: The Woman at the Bottom of the Lake (Part 1)

It had been very wet all that afternoon, and as he spoke droplets darted fitfully down the length of the glass behind him.

Source: The Guardian (Article Version)

I slept fitfully, glad of the distraction that Eddie created so that I didn't have to be the focus of attention.

Source: Still Me (Me Before You #3)

Down at streetlevel another poster, torn at one corner, flapped fitfully in the wind, alternately covering and uncovering the single word INGSOC.

Source: 1984 George Orwell

Harry dozed fitfully, sinking into dreams full of clammy, rotted hands and petrified pleading, jerking awake to dwell again on the sound of his mother's voice.

Source: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

The line of demarcation was so marked between information willingly supplied and politely declined that the latter ceased to stir resentment, except fitfully from Mallinson.

Source: The Disappearing Horizon

The cabin lamp—taking long swings this way and that—was burning fitfully, and casting fitful shadows upon the old man's bolted door, —a thin one, with fixed blinds inserted, in place of upper panels.

Source: Moby-Dick

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