How To Use Fitful In A Sentence

He accepted the situation, happy in the gentle and protecting affection the girl showed him, fitfully enough, for she had, as she called it, her bad days when she used to visit her mother and remain long hours in the riverside hut, coming out as inscrutable as ever, but with a contemptuous look and a short word ready to answer any of his speeches. Almayer's Folly
A fitful breeze stirred the pale foliage over her head, now and then showering her with pink petals from the lingering blossoms; from beneath her rose the damp sweet fragrance of soft earth and green grass, nearby a meadow-lark sang plaintively; somewhere a robin called arrogantly to his mate in the nest; from the valley, stretching below the sloping orchard, a violet mist lifted. Red-Robin
He coughed fitfully and held his heaving chest as dark liquid trickled out of his mouth.
After midnight, outspanning in a piercing wind, we formed square; main guard was posted over the General's car, and those lucky enough to escape turn of duty huddled together under cloaks and dozed fitfully until two-thirty. With Botha in the Field
I dropped off fairly quickly, but had a fitful night's sleep full of bizarre dreams and awoke feeling unrefreshed. Times, Sunday Times

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The noises of the camp drifted up over the grade fitfully, dreamily; some new hunger that might have been called homesickness was urging a new tone into the evening sounds. The Return of Blue Pete
English soccer hordes have brought disgrace to themselves, contempt on their nation and ignominy to those who try, fitfully, to govern them.
You could see the eroded gaps when someone underbought a book and it sold out, selling in fitful gaps whenever a stock-starved store managed to get their hands on a few copies. When "I've Heard Of Them!" Becomes "They've Heard Of Me!"
But I still had a fitful night's sleep. Times, Sunday Times
He had finally dozed into a fitful sleep only to be awakened by a horrible dream, his only problem, he couldn't remember it.
One brown knoll alone breaks the waste, and on it a few leafless wind-clipt oaks stretch their moss-grown arms, like giant hairy spiders, above a desolate pool which crisps and shivers in the biting breeze, while from beside its brink rises a mournful cry, and sweeps down, faint and fitful, amid the howling of the wind. Westward Ho!
He is in a fitful mood which is compounded by an outburst at the table by a maid, who has obviously become one of his many conquests.
Shipp's metallic chords against Brown's restless drumming and fitful swing are spine-tingling on Part Two, and his stately, harpsichord-like reverie entrancing on Part Three.
In a fit of childish fitfulness, I stomped my feet this morning and said I don't * care* if I'll pay for it later, I'm Not Working Today. Bunchalittlestuff
I dozed fitfully until morning, when I awake feeling knackered; my spouse looked worried and ashen in sympathy.
It took the edge off the pain, relaxed me and enabled me to get some fitful sleep.
She fell into a fitful, dreamless sleep.
Not many miles away another little ship was slipping through the water, fitfully tacking against the contrary wind, seeking an easterly path.
I fell into a fitful, restless sleep, one that was preoccupied with thoughts of him.
I slept fitfully, dreaming that a rat was softly nuzzling my ear.
I snatched six hours of restless, fitful sleep before having to get back into the office.
That fitfulness discredited the party, and Besancenot has thrived on the upshot: disappointed blue-collar and public-sector workers. France Goes Postal
I dozed fitfully and uncomfortably at first and then fell into a deep, heavy sleep.
I fell into a fitful, restless sleep, one that was preoccupied with thoughts of him.
The only sound at all -- and that was fitful -- came from a fern-owl which, from a thorn-bush above me, churred softly and at intervals his content with the night. Lore of Proserpine
In the latest issue of The Nation, NYU professor and Hugo Chavez sycophant Greg Grandin praises "Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela, where progressive movements are fitfully trying to 'refound' their societies along more inclusive lines. Reason Magazine
Tessa and I were given $100 cash to read a script in November 2000, a script so bad that even the title spurred paroxysms of fitful laughter (I'd say which script it was, but this blog has gotten me into enough trouble this week already). 2/9/03 Day 50 of the
He walked to and fro in short, fitful steps, crying that there was no help, no help. The Shadow of a Crime A Cumbrian Romance
They only way they could sleep now, in short fitful frames, pressed to one another, crying, wearing themselves into broken, empty dreams of exhaustion. Archive 2006-09-03
I slept fitfully, awakened from time to time by my fears alone, at others by the haunting war cries or the percussive sound of an explosion in the distance.
For the first few hours the sleep had been fitful. Times, Sunday Times
His sleep was fitful and intermittent, and he soon rose from bed to go and see his son.
Seventy-five years ago in August 1932, the German doctor Erwin Schliephake published scientific data in the German Medical Weekly about radio transmitter-induced “microwave” or “radio wave sickness” with the following symptoms: severe tiredness and fatigue during the day, fitful sleep in the night, headaches to the point of intolerability, and high susceptibility to infection. Op-Ed: Is Microwave Exposure Harming Millions?
Waking from a fitful and fevered sleep to the sounds of hip hop blasting through the house is not the kind of experience I wanted this morning.
I fell into a fitful, restless sleep, one that was preoccupied with thoughts of him.
Sleep is likely to be fitful while you linger in the delicious sensual afterglow.
They made unlikely pairing in an interesting if fitfully awkward night. Times, Sunday Times
The alarm would wake me from a fitful night of sleep on the couch. Christianity Today
Turning off the light, she slid back under the covers and closed her eyes to sleep fitfully until noon.
His mind felt as indistinct as the view, his long but fitful sleep leaving him more ragged, with less patience and comprehension. THE LAST RAVEN
Kara had a fitful night sleep before waking up early.
One Christmas Eve in the `twenties, she was mollified by shadows cast by a moon that rode fitfully in and out of fast-moving scud. DISPLACED PERSON
Eventually, however, my vigilance relaxed and I seemed to drift off; and I remained wrapped in fitful slumber until rewakened by a persistent pattering on my blanket. Fibble, D.D.
Mistress Heaner led the way, holding the lamp, which threw fitful shadows onto the walls. TREASON KEEP
It was the fitful confusion of stop-start fiscal spending that seesawed the economy between hopeful improvement on the one hand, and wrenching cut-backs and consumption taxes urged by austerity-preaching deficit hawks on the other. Lynn Parramore: Japanophobia: Economic Myths in the American Media
Sit not sad because that time a fitful aspect weareth; Patience is most bitter, yet most sweet the fruit it bearth.
Her style has tended toward the expressionistic - fitful and scratchy.
Instead of being passed over in a two-decade silence, the Holocaust was tossed by a two-decade fitfulness of interpretation, a period during which no version commanded enough assent to get the full attention of the culture, until ﬁnally one version came out on top. Silence after the Holocaust
Last night was particularly disturbing because I had fitful dreams on the edge of consciousness.
I then had to leave to see to my children but was back at the hospital by 9.00 am after a fitful night's sleep.
John awoke from a fitful sleep .
A drive to advance woman Marines has made fitful progress. Times, Sunday Times
Rushing wind and lashing rain; pale gleams of a fitful moon to show swaying trees that tossed wild arms to heaven, and a splashing quag below, mud and wind-swept pools, all lost again in the swirling dark. Peregrine's Progress
While it cannot be said that Tom Parker had ever labored arduously at anything, nevertheless he had followed his calling faithfully, and the peculiar exigencies of that calling had made of him a light and fitful sleeper. Flowing Gold
The critical were there, representing various shades of belief and prejudice, from the quiet repressionist, who, disdaining emotion, views with dispassionate coldness the great tenets of the faith, to the irrepressible enthusiast whose spiritual understanding is often lost beneath a foam of feeling; from the instructed brother who reads his title clear with logical accuracy in the Scriptures and glories in his standing with belieing indifference to his state, to the anxious soul whose hope of heaven veers with every changing wind of fitful emotion. The First Soprano
The initial ‘Meditation’ is very troubled, with hectic glissandos and fitful ostinatos.
As the dawn broke over Paris the sound of the tumbrel wheels awoke the prisoners from their fitful sleep.
fitful (or interrupted) sleep
We was still alone, and no feverish words of mine can do justice to the fitfulness of his appearance as he sat at No. 4 table, increased by there being something wrong with the meter. Somebody's Luggage
It was like meeting her all over again; she was present there in the crematorium with a fitful autumn sun and trees outside the glass walls. Times, Sunday Times
A calm morning, as if the gods partied late last night and they are still sleeping fitfully.
The crossing was calm and the gentle swaying motion of the ship had lulled him into a fitful sleep in the rest-lounge.
FATHER BLAKE'S DRIVING got better as they sped up the M1, and after a while Dog drifted off into a fitful sleep. THE ONLY GAME
Sit not sad because that time a fitful aspect weareth; Patience is most bitter, yet most sweet the fruit it bearth.
Nationalism is a gradual and fitful process, not a phenomenon that springs fully armed from Zeus's brow and remains an unstinting armed patroness of the national polity.
But slower and slower grew her flight; strength at last was failing, for it had been too severely tried; her breath came quick and fast, in short, fitful gasps, and her heart beat heavily beneath her quivering breast. Parables from Flowers
The 96 years between these two firsts is a stark reminder of the fitfulness of beginnings. Michele Elam: Why Black Firsts Matter
They made unlikely pairing in an interesting if fitfully awkward night. Times, Sunday Times
I woke up on Tuesday morning after a few hours fitful sleep and went back to the hospital.
The list may not be confined to the military and veterans of past fitful experiments with democracy. Times, Sunday Times
She mumbled something and shut her eyes, falling into a fitful sleep.
Sit not sad because that time a fitful aspect weareth; Patience is most bitter, yet most sweet the fruit it bearth.
In the past both have been fitful performers, outstanding one day anonymous the next.
A drive to advance woman Marines has made fitful progress. Times, Sunday Times
They passed into the fitful darkness of the dock cavern.
It looks as if a fitful light is playing on the tree. Times, Sunday Times
Beth was feverish and fitful, tossing about beneath the sheets, her head thrashing from side to side, muttering inaudibly from time to time.
In the park, the rides and the midway are quiet, the carnies and hawkers sleep the fitful sleep of those who have no permanent home.
I've been progressing fitfully, onwards and upwards through September, both physically and spiritually.
So a fitful night's sleep leads me to another gray, chilly and rainy day.
In the fitful sleep that icy, twenty-four hour sunlight allows, I dreamt of hot forests and beach barbecues.
He woke from a fitful sleep with a headache.
Roads of a sort, fitfully maintained by statute-labour, existed in an arc from the Moray Firth to the central belt, but were often so primitive, rutted, or miry that they got worse as traffic increased.
I dozed fitfully until morning, when I awake feeling knackered; my spouse looked worried and ashen in sympathy.
It was a cool day with fitful sunshine.
Returning to the open park in front of Cranbury, there occurs that fitfully blooming plant, lady's-tresses -- Neottia Spiralis autumnalis - John Keble's Parishes
After about two hours of fitful sleep, I rose for a hectic day. Times, Sunday Times
It is a fitfully lively, dutifully interesting slice of quality moviemaking.
His fitful petulance, his unsuccessful attempts to take control, his complete incomprehension of adult assumptions and mores.
Returning to the open park in front of Cranbury, there occurs that fitfully blooming plant, lady's-tresses -- Neottia Spiralis autumnalis - John Keble's Parishes
Once more I write with the splendours of the quenchless fires in sight, and the usual world seems twilight and commonplace by the fierce glare of Halemaumau, and the fitful glare of the other and loftier flame, which is burning ten thousand feet higher in lonely The Hawaiian Archipelago
The highlights of the season have been few and far between, but the performance of young players stands out - the fitful and enthusiastic Parker, the promising Martin Maher and, most of all, the leonine Emmanuel Panther.
The initial ‘Meditation’ is very troubled, with hectic glissandos and fitful ostinatos.
The sun rose in the late evening usually just when Eva was beginning to fall into fitful sleep with restless dreams.
One Christmas Eve in the `twenties, she was mollified by shadows cast by a moon that rode fitfully in and out of fast-moving scud. DISPLACED PERSON
North America attracted the English Crown as a forward base to attack Spain's possessions, and the Church of England fitfully heeded biblical imperatives to proselytize the heathen.
Sit not sad because that time a fitful aspect weareth; Patience is most bitter, yet most sweet the fruit it bearth.
She did not practice at all, and immediately drifted into a restless and fitful sleep, though she did not know why.
She kissed him on his forehead as he slipped back into sleep, taken by fitful dreams of howling in the forest.
Then her love life may become rather fitful, given the long hours in her competitive world. Times, Sunday Times
Were there in the wide world of varying forms and faces a form and a face so much unlike his own as were those of the man who walked, nay, jerked along, in short, fitful paces, by his side? The Shadow of a Crime A Cumbrian Romance
Sit not sad because that time a fitful aspect weareth; Patience is most bitter, yet most sweet the fruit it bearth.
I rarely stayed awake past 10pm before descending into a fitful sleep. Times, Sunday Times
His sleep was fitful and intermittent, and he soon rose from bed to go and see his son.
For the first few hours the sleep had been fitful. Times, Sunday Times
The list may not be confined to the military and veterans of past fitful experiments with democracy. Times, Sunday Times
Sit not sad because that time a fitful aspect weareth; Patience is most bitter, yet most sweet the fruit it bearth.
Don wrapped his protective arms around her and didn't leave her until he had rocked her to a fitful sleep two hours later.
I faced another night of fitful sleep. Times, Sunday Times
I faced another night of fitful sleep. Times, Sunday Times
And one night he thought he heard, underneath the wind, awaking from that fitful, unrestful sleep, ‘It's coming, be patient.’
Sit not sad because that time a fitful aspect weareth; Patience is most bitter, yet most sweet the fruit it bearth.
This love letter to a building is fitfully imbued with the spectral presence of the people who have poured their energy into it. Times, Sunday Times
A fitful phosphorescence, like the glow of deep-sea fishes: blue, cold, charmless. THE HELLBOUND HEART
Having taken the lead against Turkey their football became fitful, then flabby, and towards the end was footling.
A low, fitful piping, as of some reedy flute, was coming from the depth of a neighbouring copse, and there seemed to be some subtle connection between the animal's restless pacing and the wild music from the wood.
The film is fitfully amusing and there are a few good giggles to be had. The Sun
The alarm would wake me from a fitful night of sleep on the couch. Christianity Today
Attempts to win over allies among the Cherokees and Catawbas paralleled the fitful construction at Fort Loudoun. George Washington’s First War
Visbec watched him from the back of the wagon, where he was fitfully fixing a broken string on his psaltery.
Sit not sad because that time a fitful aspect weareth; Patience is most bitter, yet most sweet the fruit it bearth.
Exhausted from her journey, she fell into a fitful sleep, filled with dreams of her family.
Sit not sad because that time a fitful aspect weareth; Patience is most bitter, yet most sweet the fruit it bearth.
At first, whenever this happened, his wife fretted extremely -- _fretted_ is the right word, for it was more a fitful chafing than a positive grief. Olive A Novel
It worked only fitfully, and the discs failed to work in some kinds of CD players, notably in-car systems.
I got a fitful two hours of sleep, tried to read and write, and at the first breath of light outside the portholes, went up on deck to watch the sun rise.
My hair, reddish in the sunlight, unraveled from its bun and corkscrewed across my overwarm face, fitfully blocking traffic from sight. Bleeding Violet
he slept fitfully
Intercommunal fighting continued fitfully, with occasional upsurges of intense violence.
I spent most of the night trying not to be sick and catching a few fitful hours of sleep, but I was much better by the next day.
Sit not sad because that time a fitful aspect weareth; Patience is most bitter, yet most sweet the fruit it bearth.
The hungry cry of the beast of prey, or the fierce deed of savage man, whoop and dance, triumph and torture, broke in fitful bursts upon the deep silence, and then died away, leaving the breath of life to rise and fall with the passing winds. Rural Hours
I rarely stayed awake past 10pm before descending into a fitful sleep. Times, Sunday Times
Climbing into bed at a relatively early 0048 this morning, I could do little other than drift fitfully between wakefulness and a semi-conscious dozing, looking at my watch every here and again to see the hours ticking by slower than ever.
He fell into a fitful, worried sleep, and woke up about three hours later.
I woke up on Tuesday morning after a few hours fitful sleep and went back to the hospital.
It looks as if a fitful light is playing on the tree. Times, Sunday Times
Both Townsend and Logan are streaky kickers, while Hodge's attempts to replicate his Reivers form in a Scotland shirt have been worryingly fitful.
All night it blew in short fitful puffs, heeling the great cog over until the water curled over her lee bulwarks. The White Company
After about two hours of fitful sleep, I rose for a hectic day. Times, Sunday Times
The film is fitfully amusing and there are a few good giggles to be had. The Sun
Flitting fitfully from discordant strings and hectic glockenspiels to lean oboe solos, Rota's masterpiece is an unstable symphony to the teeming metropolis.
fitful bursts of energy
Sleep was very fitful last night, as every time I moved I was woken by the pain.
The darkness was starting to lighten before she dozed, then slept fitfully, tossing and turning.
It was a cool day with fitful sunshine.
Dozens of small balsa-wood structures were scattered on the cement floor, both within and outside the ambit of a crude wooden sluice system that carried a fitfully circulating trickle of water.
Our Pearl is a fitful and fantastic little elf sometimes.
It was like meeting her all over again; she was present there in the crematorium with a fitful autumn sun and trees outside the glass walls. Times, Sunday Times
Ruffian as he looks, the first word he speaks — to a lady, at least — places him on a level with educated gentlemen, and his conversation is brilliant, and full of the light and fitfulness of genius. A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains
Then her love life may become rather fitful, given the long hours in her competitive world. Times, Sunday Times
Sit not sad because that time a fitful aspect weareth; Patience is most bitter, yet most sweet the fruit it bearth.
It was confirmed with this outcome that the two men with flair are not only essential to the line-up but also that England will fail if they fall prey to the fitfulness that affected them here. Steven Gerrard pays back the confidence of Fabio Capello
In the secluded recesses of the valley all was hot, heavy and still; though now and then a fitful snatch of a breeze, the mere fragment of some broken gust that seemed to have lost its way, tossed for a moment the white cannach of the bogs, or raised spirally into the air, for a few yards, the light beards of some seeding thistle, and straightway let them down again. The Cruise of the Betsey or, A Summer Ramble Among the Fossiliferous Deposits of the Hebrides. With Rambles of a Geologist or, Ten Thousand Miles Over the Fossiliferous Deposits of Scotland
Instead, he watched her sleep and dozed fitfully thinking about her and what to do next.
At the far end of the room was a second door, which stood half open; a bogwood fire burned on a hearth somewhat less rude than the one which I had first seen, but still very little better appointed with a chimney, for thick wreaths of smoke were eddying, with every fitful gust, about the room. The Purcell Papers
Her sleep is fitful and she often stays in bed until midday, too weak to move or because the pain is too severe.
Even more troubling, possible use of cocaine raises a question not just about character, but about Bush's legal fitfulness for elected office at all. John Seery: The Bush Cocaine Chronicles: Complicity and Cover-up
Sit not sad because that time a fitful aspect weareth; Patience is most bitter, yet most sweet the fruit it bearth.
Not all the centuries of fitful contact between Dublin and Wales had been by way of invasion and rapine, a good many marriages had been made between the princedoms, and a fair measure of honest commerce been profitable to both parties. His Disposition
But I still had a fitful night's sleep. Times, Sunday Times
He was asleep, but he was resting fitfully - his black hair was matted against his head, and his breath came out in rasping sighs.
John Barton had revived to fitful intelligence.
Shortly after we finished, we turned in for what proved to be a long night of fitful sleep.
The advanced industrial economies are still only fitfully recovering. Times, Sunday Times
I dozed fitfully until morning, when I awake feeling knackered; my spouse looked worried and ashen in sympathy.
Sit not sad because that time a fitful aspect weareth; Patience is most bitter, yet most sweet the fruit it bearth.
As the dawn broke over Paris the sound of the tumbrel wheels awoke the prisoners from their fitful sleep and were soon loaded like animals to go on their last journey.
I slept fitfully through what seemed an interminable night. Seminary Boy
For many months he wouldn't settle, slept fitfully, never napped and as a result was tired, irritable and tiring.

How To Use Fitful In A Sentence

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