Definition of "fitful" []

• Occurring in or characterized by intermittent bursts, as of activity; irregular. See Synonyms at periodic. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "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."
• "They only way they could sleep now, in short fitful frames, pressed to one another, crying, wearing themselves into broken, empty dreams of exhaustion."
• "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."