Fitful
['fɪtfʊl;-f(ə)l] or ['fɪtfəl]
Definition
(adj.) intermittently stopping and starting; 'fitful (or interrupted) sleep'; 'off-and-on static' .
(adj.) occurring in spells and often abruptly; 'fitful bursts of energy'; 'spasmodic rifle fire' .
Typist: Margery--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) Full of fits; irregularly variable; impulsive and unstable.
Checker: Mortimer
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. Variable, irregular, spasmodic, impulsive, unstable, fickle, whimsical, fanciful, capricious, fantastic, humorsome, odd.
Checked by Blanchard
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Capricious, fickle, unstable, restless, inconstant, mutable, impulsive,desultory, fanciful, unequal, irregular
ANT:Regular, equable, systematic, orderly, calculable
Checked by Justin
Examples
- And that amazes me most in you, Steerforth--that you should be contented with such fitful uses of your powers. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- Her accents obeyed the fitful impulse of the wind; they swelled as its gusts rushed on, and died as they wandered away. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- The strong emotion was rarely suffered to influence her tongue, and even her eye refused it more than a furtive and fitful conquest. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- The fire of Dorothea's anger was not easily spent, and it flamed out in fitful returns of spurning reproach. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- I followed this man along a rudely-paved street, lit now by a fitful gleam of moonlight; he brought me to the inn. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- Real affection, it seemed, he could not have for me; it had been only fitful passion: that was balked; he would want me no more. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- Justice was fitful and law venal. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- The light raised by her breath had been very fitful, and a momentary irradiation of flesh was all that it had disclosed of her face. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- It is worth pausing just a moment to glance at this man taking a fitful rest on a pile of iron pipe in a dingy building. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- Yes--'after life's fitful fever they sleep well,' I muttered. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- How evanescent, fugitive, fitful she looked--slim and swift as a northern streamer! Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- For many years, she kept up a capricious, fitful sort of correspondence. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- She has done so for some years, and she is (if I may say so of a fellow-creature and a lady) fitful and uncertain to a fault, Mr Clennam. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- The fire being low and fitful, and the dusk gloomy, the whole stock seemed to be winking and blinking with both eyes, as Mr Venus did. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- The stranger, taking advantage of this fitful illumination of his visage, looked intently and wonderingly at him. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- Twice more in all; but, the last spell of work was feeble and fitful. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- Thus the glimpses we had of the grand panorama below were only fitful and unsatisfactory. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
Checked by Justin