After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well. --Shak.
-- {Fit"ful*ly}, adv. -- {Fit"ful*ness}, n.
[1913 Webster]
The victorious trumpet peal Dies fitfully away. --Macaulay.
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
fitful — fitful, spasmodic, convulsive are comparable when they mean lacking steadiness or regularity in course, movement, or succession (as of acts or efforts). Fitful stresses variability and intermittency; it implies an irregular succession… … New Dictionary of Synonyms
fitful — index broken (interrupted), disjunctive (tending to disjoin), disorderly, haphazard, inconsistent, intermittent, sporadic … Law dictionary
fitful — used once by Shakespeare ( Macbeth, 1605) in sense of characterized by fits, then revived by Scott (1810) with a sense of shifting, changing. From FIT (Cf. fit) (n.2) + FUL (Cf. ful). Related: Fitfully; fitfulness … Etymology dictionary
fitful — [adj] irregular, sporadic bits and pieces*, broken, capricious, catchy*, changeable, desultory, disturbed, erratic, flickering, fluctuating, haphazard, herky jerky*, hit or miss*, impulsive, inconstant, intermittent, interrupted, onagain off… … New thesaurus
fitful — ► ADJECTIVE ▪ active or occurring intermittently; not regular or steady. DERIVATIVES fitfully adverb fitfulness noun … English terms dictionary
fitful — [fit′fəl] adj. [ FIT2 + FUL] characterized by irregular or intermittent activity, impulses, etc.; spasmodic; restless fitfully adv. fitfulness n … English World dictionary
fitful — adjective Date: 1592 1. obsolete characterized by fits or paroxysms 2. having an erratic or intermittent character ; irregular • fitfully adverb • fitfulness noun Synonyms: fitful, spasmodic … New Collegiate Dictionary
fitful — [[t]fɪ̱tfʊl[/t]] ADJ Something that is fitful happens for irregular periods of time or occurs at irregular times, rather than being continuous. Colin drifted off into a fitful sleep... The government is making slow and fitful progress in these… … English dictionary
fitful — fit|ful [ˈfıtfəl] adj not regular, and starting and stopping often ▪ John awoke from a fitful sleep . ▪ The peace talks only seem to be making fitful progress. >fitfully adv ▪ She slept fitfully … Dictionary of contemporary English
fitful — adjective Irregular; unsteady; characterized by fits. His breathing was fitful … Wiktionary
