stop-start

comparative more stop-start · superlative most stop-start

1. Intermittent; starting and stopping with regularity.

   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.

   2011 December 10, David Ornstein, “Arsenal 1 - 0 Everton”, in BBC Sport

   3 more examples

   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.

   2008 March 21, “Pop and Rock Listings”, in New York Times

   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.

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

   These strategies also need plans which are then developed for delivery in an efficient manner, unlike the shop-start stuff we have lived with for far too long.

   2025 November 12, Ian Prosser, “High maintenance levels”, in RAIL, number 1048, page 15

   Synonyms: stop-go, stop-and-go, fitful, patchy, broken, fitful, ragged, catchy