fits and starts
fits and starts noun: activity which is intermittent, variable in intensity, and prolonged by interruptions.
Noun
fits and starts pl (plural only)
- Activity which is intermittent, variable in intensity, and prolonged by interruptions.
- Progress in this project has come in fits and starts.
- We act by fits and starts, like drowning men,
But just peep up, and then pop down again.1681, John Dryden, Epilogue for ‘The King's House’, lines 1–2
Examples of fits and starts in a sentence
- I spent the night in fits and starts, getting up and lying down full twenty times, and dreaming the same dream over and over again.1841, Charles Dickens, chapter 2, in Master Humphrey's Clock:
- It is a stammered, sleazy chronicle, told by fits and starts in bits and pieces, and constantly interrupted by the director and actors.1955 December 26, “Old Play in Manhattan”, in Time:
Questions about fits and starts
- What does fits and starts mean?
- Fits and starts means activity which is intermittent, variable in intensity, and prolonged by interruptions.
- How do you use fits and starts in a sentence?
- I spent the night in fits and starts, getting up and lying down full twenty times, and dreaming the same dream over and over again.
- What part of speech is fits and starts?
- Fits and starts is a noun.
Words near fits and starts in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fits and starts (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-fits and starts.ogg.
Cite this entry: “fits and starts.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fits_and_starts. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.