English
Noun
en-noun|sg=fits and starts|plurale tantum|always plural Category:English pluralia tantum
- idiom activity|Activity which is intermittent, variable in intensity, and prolonged by interruptions.
#: Progress in this project has come in fits and starts.
Quotations
timeline|
1600s=1681|
1800s=1841|
1900s=1955|
2000s=2007
1681, w:John_Dryden|John Dryden, "Epilogue for �The King's House�," lines 1-2,
:We act by fits and starts, like drowning men,
:But just peep up, and then pop down again.
1841, w:Charles_Dickens|Charles Dickens, Master Humphrey's Clock, ch. 2,
: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.
1955, "Old Play in Manhattan," Time, 26 Dec.,
:It is a stammered, sleazy chronicle, told by fits and starts in bits and pieces, and constantly interrupted by the director and actors.
2007, "Australian Premier vows troops pullout," Gulf Daily News (Bahrain), 22 Dec.,
:Paying for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in fits and starts undermines US military planning and risks the gains made by US troops.
Category:English phrases
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