Adjacent Words

Fitful definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

FIT'FUL, a. Varied by paroxysms; full of fits.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: occurring in spells and often abruptly; "fitful bursts of energy"; "spasmodic rifle fire" [syn: fitful, spasmodic]
2: intermittently stopping and starting; "fitful (or interrupted) sleep"; "off-and-on static" [syn: fitful, interrupted, off-and-on]

Merriam Webster's

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, convulsive mean lacking steadiness or regularity in movement. fitful implies intermittence, a succession of starts and stops or risings and fallings <fitful sleep>. spasmodic adds to fitful the implication of rapid or violent activity alternating with inactivity <spasmodic growth>. convulsive suggests the breaking of regularity or quiet by uncontrolled movement <convulsive shocks>.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. active or occurring spasmodically or intermittently. Derivatives: fitfully adv. fitfulness n.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Fitful Fit"ful, a. [From 7th Fit.] Full of fits; irregularly variable; impulsive and unstable. After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well. --Shak. -- Fit"ful*ly, adv. -- Fit"ful*ness, n. The victorious trumpet peal Dies fitfully away. --Macaulay.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

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... ? continuous ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Variable, irregular, spasmodic, impulsive unstable, fickle, whimsical, fanciful capricious, fantastic, humorsome, odd. 2. Eventful, checkered, full of vicissitude.

Moby Thesaurus

adrift, afloat, aimless, alternating, amorphous, broken, broken off, capricious, careening, casual, catchy, changeable, changeful, chopped-off, choppy, convulsive, correctly, decently, decorously, decousu, desultory, deviable, deviative, disarticulated, disconnected, discontinued, discontinuous, discrete, disjunct, disjunctive, disordered, dispersed, disproportionate, dizzy, eccentric, eclamptic, episodic, erratic, fast and loose, fickle, fidgety, fitly, fittingly, flickering, flighty, flitting, fluctuating, formless, freakish, frivolous, giddy, gratuitous, guttering, halting, haphazard, herky-jerky, heteroclite, hit-or-miss, immethodical, impetuous, impulsive, inchoate, incoherent, inconsistent, inconstant, indecisive, indiscriminate, infirm, intermittent, intermitting, interrupted, irregular, irresolute, irresponsible, jagged, jerking, jerky, jiggety, jumpy, justly, lurching, mazy, meaningless, mercurial, misshapen, moody, nicely, noncontinuous, nonlinear, nonsequential, nonserial, nonsymmetrical, nonsystematic, nonuniform, occasional, on-again-off-again, orderless, orgasmic, parenthetic, patchy, periodic, planless, promiscuous, properly, rambling, random, recurrent, restless, rightly, rough, roving, saltatory, scatterbrained, scrappy, senseless, shapeless, shifting, shifty, shuffling, snatchy, spasmatic, spasmic, spasmodic, spastic, spineless, sporadic, spotty, staggering, straggling, straggly, suspended, systemless, twitchety, twitching, twitchy, unaccountable, unarranged, uncertain, unclassified, unconnected, uncontrolled, undependable, undirected, undisciplined, unequal, uneven, unfixed, ungraded, unjoined, unmethodical, unmetrical, unordered, unorganized, unpredictable, unregular, unreliable, unrestrained, unrhythmical, unsettled, unsorted, unstable, unstable as water, unstaid, unsteadfast, unsteady, unsuccessive, unsymmetrical, unsystematic, ununiform, vacillating, vagrant, vague, variable, varying, veering, vellicative, vicissitudinary, vicissitudinous, volatile, wandering, wanton, wavering, wavery, wavy, wayward, whimsical, wishy-washy, wobbling, wobbly