fitfully

From fitful + -ly.

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fitfully (comparative more fitfully, superlative most fitfully)

1. In a fitful manner; irregularly or unsteadily.

   Synonyms: in fits and starts; see also Thesaurus:discontinuously

   He slept fitfully, plagued by bad dreams and a persistent cough.

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 123, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     The cabin lamp—taking long swings this way and that— was burning fitfully, and casting fitful shadows upon the old man’s bolted door […]

   • 1885–1886, Henry James, chapter XXXV, in The Bostonians […], London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 16 February 1886, →OCLC:

     The train for Marmion left Boston at four o'clock in the afternoon, and rambled fitfully toward the southern cape, while the shadows grew long in the stony pastures […]

   • 1904, Jack London, chapter 36, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC:

     We shivered miserably throughout the night. Now and again fitfully slept, but the pain of the cold always aroused me.