FITFUL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does fitful mean? 

• FITFUL (adjective)
  The adjective FITFUL has 2 senses:

1. occurring in spells and often abruptly

2. intermittently stopping and starting

  Familiarity information: FITFUL used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FITFUL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Occurring in spells and often abruptly

Synonyms:

fitful; spasmodic

Context example:

spasmodic rifle fire

Similar:

sporadic (recurring in scattered and irregular or unpredictable instances)

Derivation:

fitfulness (the quality of being spasmodic and irregular)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Intermittently stopping and starting

Synonyms:

fitful; interrupted; off-and-on

Context example:

off-and-on static

Similar:

broken (not continuous in space, time, or sequence or varying abruptly)

Derivation:

fitfulness (the quality of being spasmodic and irregular)

 Context examples 

The wind was fair but fitful, and it was like looking for a needle in a haystack to raise that tiny boat out of the blue immensity.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

"Yes—'after life's fitful fever they sleep well,'" I muttered.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Though he lay down in the entrance and slept, his sleep was fitful.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

All night it blew in short fitful puffs, heeling the great cog over until the water curled over her lee bulwarks.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And that amazes me most in you, Steerforth—that you should be contented with such fitful uses of your powers.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Moreover, the shift from deep, consolidated sleep in youth to fitful, dissatisfying sleep can start as early as one's 30s, paving the way for sleep-related cognitive and physical ailments in middle age.

(Deep Sleep May Act as Fountain of Youth in Old Age, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Real affection, it seemed, he could not have for me; it had been only fitful passion: that was balked; he would want me no more.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Black was the mouth of Twynham Castle, though a pair of torches burning at the further end of the gateway cast a red glare over the outer bailey, and sent a dim, ruddy flicker through the rough-hewn arch, rising and falling with fitful brightness.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

When I came to the stile, I stopped a minute, looked round and listened, with an idea that a horse's hoofs might ring on the causeway again, and that a rider in a cloak, and a Gytrash-like Newfoundland dog, might be again apparent: I saw only the hedge and a pollard willow before me, rising up still and straight to meet the moonbeams; I heard only the faintest waft of wind roaming fitful among the trees round Thornfield, a mile distant; and when I glanced down in the direction of the murmur, my eye, traversing the hall-front, caught a light kindling in a window: it reminded me that I was late, and I hurried on.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)