by fits and starts
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Past efforts to tighten security cooperation between Seoul and Tokyo have progressed by fits and starts.
From Seattle Times • Aug. 18, 2023
For all the divisions we have faced in our history and all the serious trauma of recent years, the U.S. has endured to build, by fits and starts, a more perfect union.
From Salon • Mar. 7, 2023
After the Civil War, the breakup movement kept going by fits and starts, over who was getting the rawest deal on you-name-it.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 21, 2021
“My poetry imitates or reproduces the way knowledge or awareness comes to me, which is by fits and starts and by indirection. I don’t think poetry arranged in neat patterns would reflect that situation.”
From Washington Post • Sep. 3, 2017
He moved upward slowly, by fits and starts at first, then more smoothly.
From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin
