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To move uneasily one way and the other; to move irregularly, or by fits and starts. Moore.

d unusual effort, activity, or motion, followed by relaxation or insction; an impulse and irregular action. The fits of the season. Shak.

Full of fits; irregularly variable; impulsive and unstable. After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well. Shak. -- Fit"ful*ly, adv. -- Fit"ful*ness, n. The victorius trumpet peal Dies fitfully away. Macaulay.

Decorated by glaze splashed or irregularly spread upon the surface, or apparently applied at the top and allowed to run down the sides; -- said of pieces of Chinese porcelain.

r wanton movements, by way of ornament, parade, bravado, etc.; to play with fantastic and irregular motion. Impetuous spread The stream, and smoking flourished o'er his head. Pope.

To move about briskly, irregularly, or with great bustle and show, without much result. No rag, no scrap, of all the beau, or wit, That once so fluttered, and that once so writ. Pope.

The act of fluttering; quick and irregular motion; vibration; as, the flutter of a fan. The chirp and flutter of some single bird Milnes. .

aria, syn. Agaricus muscarius), having usually a bright red or yellowish cap covered with irregular white spots. It has a distinct volva at the base, generally an upper ring on the stalk, and white spores. Called also fly agaric, deadly amanita.

A sudden or irregular incursion in border warfare; hence, any irregular incursion for war or spoils; a raid. Spenser. The huge Earl Doorm, . . . Bound on a foray, rolling eyes of prey. Tennyson.

ne is due form, or with solemnity; according to regular method; not incidental, sudden or irregular; express; as, he gave his formal consent. His obscure funeral . . . No noble rite nor formal ostentation. Shak.

r a water gauge. -- Gauge lathe, an automatic lathe for turning a round object having an irregular profile, as a baluster or chair round, to a templet or gauge. -- Gauge point, the diameter of a cylinder whose altitude is one inch, and contents equal to that of a unit of a given measure; -- a term used in gauging cas…

Moving irregularly; flighty; fickle. [R.] Shak.

rrowing snake (Spilotes Couperi) of the Southern United States. Gopher drift (Mining), an irregular prospecting drift, following or seeking the ore without regard to regular grade or section. Raymond.

d in ancient grottoes; grottolike; wildly or strangely formed; whimsical; extravagant; of irregular forms and proportions; fantastic; ludicrous; antic. "Grotesque design." Dryden. "Grotesque incidents." Macaulay.

An irregular mode of carrying on war, by the constant attacks of independent bands, adopted in the north of Spain during the Peninsular war.

To run or flow in a broken, irregular, noisy current, as water from a bottle, or a small stream among pebbles or stones. Pure gurgling rills the lonely desert trace, And waste their music on the savage race. Young.

To cut irregulary, without skill or definite purpose; to notch; to mangle by repeated strokes of a cutting instrument; as, to hack a post. My sword hacked like a handsaw. Shak.

h has curious side appendages, and feeds on fruit trees. -- Hag's tooth (Naut.), an ugly irregularity in the pattern of matting or pointing.

To have an irregular rhythm; to be defective. The blank verse shall halt for it. Shak.

In hurry and confusion; without definite purpose; irregularly. [Colloq.] Helter-skelter have I rode to thee. Shak. A wistaria vine running helter-skelter across the roof. J. C. Harris.