sometimes

alternative sts.

1. not comparableOn some occasions, over some periods, or in certain circumstances, but not always.First known use 16th c.

   Sometimes I sit and think, but mostly I just sit.

   4 more examples

   It is good that we sometimes be contradicted, and ill though of, and that we always bear it well, even when we deserve to be well spoken of : perfect peace and security cannot be had in this world.

   a. 1667, Jeremy Taylor, “Agenda; or, Things to Be Done”, in The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D., volume III, London: Frederick Westley and A. H. Davis, published 1836, page 730

   We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner. He could not be induced to remain permanently at Mohair because Miss Trevor was at Asquith, but he appropriated a Hempstead cart from the Mohair stables and made the trip sometimes twice in a day.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

   The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight. Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patent troll.

   2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, archived from the original on 03 Aug 2013, page 55

   In 16th and 17th century Britain, for example, women’s alopecia was sometimes interpreted as retribution for sins, including adultery.

   2024 March 31, Glen Jankowski, “Alopecia in art history: The many ways women’s hair loss has been interpreted”, in CNN, archived from the original on 02 Apr 2024

   Synonyms: at one time or another, at times, every so often, from time to time, occasionally, once in a while, at times, ever and anon

2. not comparableobsoleteOn a certain occasion in the past; once.First known use 16th–17th c.

   For yee were sometimes darkenesse, but now are yee light in the Lord: walke as children of light […]

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ephesians 5:8

   2 more examples

   What art thou that vſurp’ſt this time of night, / Together with that Faire and Warlike forme / In which the Maieſty of buried Denmarke / Did ſometimes march : By Heauen I charge thee ſpeake.

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 152, column 2, lines 46–49

   They detract, ſcoffe and raile ſaith one, & barke at mee on every ſide, but I, like that Albanian dog ſometimes given to Alexander for a preſent, vindico me ab illis ſolo contemptu, I ly ſtill and ſleep, vindicate my ſelfe by contempt alone.

   1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Remedies against diſcontents”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 2, section 3, member 7, page 351

   Synonyms: at one time, in the past, sometime, afore, aforehand, already, antecedently, at one time

alternative sts.

1. not comparableobsoleteFormer; sometime.

   Farewell old Gaunt, thy ſometimes brothers wife / With her companion Greefe, muſt end her life.

   1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], lines 54–55