stop-start

English

Adjective

stop-start (comparative more stop-start, superlative most stop-start)

1. Intermittent; starting and stopping with regularity.
   • 2011 December 10, David Ornstein, “Arsenal 1 - 0 Everton”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     It was Van Persie's only opportunity during a stop-start match in which Theo Walcott, Gervinho and Aaron Ramsey squandered chances to open the scoring.

   • 2008 March 21, “Pop and Rock Listings”, in New York Times‎^[2]:

     Health, a quartet from Los Angeles, is another story, playing manic, stop-start spasms of percussion and screamy noise, with three of its members throwing their bodies around as if in an untamed dance.

   • 2021 April 7, Christian Wolmar, “Electrification is a given... but comfort matters as well”, in RAIL, number 928, page 47:

     Otherwise, we would not be talking about electrifying the main lines, as the work would have been long since done. Instead, we are now at the sixth stage of a stop (1960s) start (1990s East Coast) stop (1990s) start (2000s Great Western) stop (2010s) process that has gone on for more than half a century.

Synonyms

• fitful, patchy; see also Thesaurus:discontinuous

See also

• stop-go