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systematic; made or happening as opportunity requires or admits; casual; incidental; as, occasional remarks, or efforts. The... occasional writing of the present times. Bagehot.

The system of occasional causes; -- a name given to certain theories of the Cartesian school of philosophers, as to the intervention of the First Cause, by which they account for the apparent reciprocal action of the soul and the body.

Quality or state of being occasional; occasional occurrence. [R.]

In an occasional manner; on occasion; at times, as convenience requires or opportunity offers; not regularly. Stewart. The one, Wolsey, directly his subject by birth; the other, his subject occasionally by his preferment. Fuller.

Once in a while; on rare occasions. [Colloq. U. S.]

A partial alienation of reason. "Occasional aberrations of intellect." Lingard. Whims, which at first are the aberrations of a single brain, pass with heat into epidemic form. I. Taylor.

sche Again and again, more than once; often; repeatedly. -- Now and again, now and then; occasionally. -- To and again, to and fro. [Obs.] De Foe.

riod, or regularly at stated intervals; invariably; uniformly; -- opposed to sometimes or occasionally. He always rides a black galloway. Bulwer.

ses of soldiers organized largely for territorial defense, living at home and having only occasional periods of drill and instraction, who are variously called home reserves (as in the table below), second, third, etc., line of defense (the regular army and its reserves ordinarily constituting the first line of defense…

is called the corona, about a spot in the heavens toward which the dipping needle points. Occasionally the aurora appears as an arch of light across the heavens from east to west. Sometimes it assumes a wavy appearance, and the streams of light are then called merry dancers. They assume a variety of colors, from a pale…

arasitic on hive bees. -- Bee martin (Zoöl.), the kingbird (Tyrannus Carolinensis) which occasionally feeds on bees. -- Bee moth (Zoöl.), a moth (Galleria cereana) whose larvæ feed on honeycomb, occasioning great damage in beehives. -- Bee wolf (Zoöl.), the larva of the bee beetle. See Illust. of Bee beetle. -- To…

An aperture, with a wooden shutter, in the wall of a house, for giving, occasionally, air or light; also, a small closet. [Scot.] Open the bole wi'speed, that I may see if this be the right Lord Geraldin. Sir W. Scott.

A tidal flood which regularly or occasionally rushes into certain rivers of peculiar configuration or location, in one or more waves which present a very abrupt front of considerable height, dangerous to shipping, as at the mouth of the Amazon, in South America, the Hoogly and Indus, in India, and the Tsien-tang, in Ch…

ustom of a man and woman, especially lovers, thus sleeping. Bartlett. Van Corlear stopped occasionally in the villages to eat pumpkin pies, dance at country frolics, and bundle with the Yankee lasses. W. Irving.

Coming without regularity; occasional; incidental; as, casual expenses. A constant habit, rather than a casual gesture. Hawthorne.

Without design; accidentally; fortuitously; by chance; occasionally.

Native strontium sulphate, a mineral so named from its occasional delicate blue color. It occurs crystallized, also in compact massive and fibrous forms.

times commanding; in all they were conniving. Burke. The government thought it expedient, occasionally, to connive at the violation of this rule. Macaulay.

urloined;; a plagiaris [Colloq.] The Latin version technically called a crib. Ld. Lytton. Occasional perusal of the Pagan writers, assisted by a crib. Wilkie Collins.

7NSO2, containing sulphur, occuring as a constituent of certain rare urinary calculi, and occasionally found as a sediment in urine.