NOW AND THEN

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does now and then mean? 

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

1. sporadically and infrequently

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• NOW AND THEN (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Sporadically and infrequently

Synonyms:

at times; from time to time; now and again; now and then; occasionally; on occasion; once in a while

Context example:

as we drove along, the beautiful scenery now and then attracted his attention

 Context examples 

For now and then she forgot her grown-up ways and acted like a spoiled child.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It will be a change for me to visit you now and then; and I like a change.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Now and then it is very well; but going to inns and public places together!

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

But now and then there came a deep growl from some wild animal hidden among the trees.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

Everyone feels tired now and then.

(Fatigue, NIH: National Institute on Aging)

A few incidents now and then directed me, and I possessed a map of the country; but I often wandered wide from my path.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I deserve a bow now and then.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She used to ask your sisters now and then, but she never asked Fanny.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

They called at various times of the morning, sometimes separately, sometimes together, and now and then accompanied by their aunt.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

I am a talker, you know; I am rather a talker; and now and then I have let a thing escape me which I should not.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)