fitfully
advEtymology From fitful + -ly.
1
In a fitful manner; irregularly or unsteadily.
- He slept fitfully, plagued by bad dreams and a persistent cough.
- The cabin lamp—taking long swings this way and that— was burning fitfully, and casting fitful shadows upon the old man’s bolted door […]1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 123, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
2 more examples
- The train for Marmion left Boston at four o'clock in the afternoon, and rambled fitfully toward the southern cape, while the shadows grew long in the stony pastures […]1885–1886, Henry James, chapter XXXV, in The Bostonians […], London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 16 February 1886, →OCLC:
- We shivered miserably throughout the night. Now and again fitfully slept, but the pain of the cold always aroused me.1904, Jack London, chapter 36, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC: