EVERY NOW AND THEN

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does every now and then mean? 

• EVERY NOW AND THEN (adverb)
  The adverb EVERY NOW AND THEN has 1 sense:

1. occasionally

  Familiarity information: EVERY NOW AND THEN used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EVERY NOW AND THEN (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Occasionally

Synonyms:

every now and then; every so often

Context example:

every so often she visits her father

 Context examples 

I was much impressed by the extremely comfortable and satisfied manner in which Mr. Waterbrook delivered himself of this little word “Yes”, every now and then.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But there is a hypothesis that our sun has a dark twin that likes to swing by every now and then, and stir things up.

(Our Sun Could Have Been Born With an Evil Twin Called "Nemesis", The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

This said, he flew out at the door, and poor Lily followed; and every now and then a white feather fell, and showed her the way she was to journey.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Oaths flew like hailstones, and every now and then there came forth such an explosion as I thought was sure to end in blows.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

She bustled about, examining me every now and then with the corner of her eye.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Mrs. Allen did all that she could do in such a case by saying very placidly, every now and then, “I wish you could dance, my dear—I wish you could get a partner.”

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

He is in Highbury every now and then, and he is sure to ride through every week in his way to Kingston.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Every now and then he would pluck at his hair, or shake his clenched hands in the air; and I saw the moisture glisten upon his brow.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I thought you'd got over the dandy period, but every now and then it breaks out in a new spot.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

My father saw this change with pleasure, and he turned his thoughts towards the best method of eradicating the remains of my melancholy, which every now and then would return by fits, and with a devouring blackness overcast the approaching sunshine.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)