fits and starts
5
6.7
- idiom
- Informal
:
altibajos
- The project progressed in fits and starts, with bursts of productivity followed by periods of silence.
- moved forward in fits and starts
- often occurs in fits and starts
It is because we as a country, through fits and starts and we haven't been perfect.
- It is because we as a country, through fits and starts and we haven't been perfect.
- I would still sleep like another hour, but I would do it in nine minute fits and starts.
Examples
-
Progress comes in fits and starts; history is the tale of action and reaction.
Academic text (1992) -
But unions themselves also bear responsibility, and they have risen to the occasion in fits and starts.
Academic text (2002) -
It comes in fits and starts, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.
-
Since 2004, Google Book Search has been plugging along through a series of fits and starts.
Academic text (2007) -
The immigrant registration program advanced in fits and starts.
Academic text (1998) -
Al Qaeda's web world evolved in fits and starts.
Academic text (2010) -
So Kremlin actions were often taken in fits and starts, much of the time belatedly.
Academic text (1999) -
Economically, they appear to have muddled through life in fits and starts, but their life was not without merriment.
Academic text (1995) -
The driving rain gusted in fits and starts as the clouds scudded overhead.
Fiction book (1991) -
A number of Latin American states have moved—admittedly in fits and starts—from illiberal to liberal democracy.
Academic text (1998)
Synonyms
2
9.3
A pattern of something happening sometimes and stopping at other times
A way of happening in sudden, irregular bursts rather than at a steady rate
Antonyms
How Steady
95
2.3
386
1.0
438
2.0
13
6.5
- Informal
5
6.7
1
8.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
The overall idea of intermittent bursts is partially derivable from 'fit' (a sudden bout) and 'start' (a beginning), with 'and' signalling a series of such events, so the components point toward repeated short episodes. However, the fixed plural collocation 'fits and starts' and its idiomatic sense of irregular, sporadic activity is conventionalized and not fully predictable from the parts for a B1 learner without prior exposure.
Etymology
Fits and starts comes from the image of quick, sudden movements: a fit is a short, strong burst and a start is a sudden jerk or beginning. So it now means 'short periods of activity followed by pauses'.