sometimes
Language: English
Part of speech: adv
Pronunciation: enpr: sŭmʹtīmz
ipa: /ˈsʌmtaɪmz/
Forms: form: sts.
Etymology: From Middle English sumtymes, somtymes, som tymes, equivalent to sometime + -s (adverbial suffix). Compare West Frisian somstiden (“sometimes”), Dutch somtijds, somwijlen (“sometimes”).
Senses: examples: text: Sometimes I sit and think, but mostly I just sit.
text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, archived from the original on 19 Sep 2020, page 55:
text: In 16th and 17th century Britain, for example, women’s alopecia was sometimes interpreted as retribution for sins, including adultery.
ref: 2024 March 31, Glen Jankowski, “Alopecia in art history: The many ways women’s hair loss has been interpreted”, in CNN:
synonyms: word: at one time or another
word: at times
word: every so often
word: from time to time
word: occasionally
word: once in a while
word: at times
word: ever and anon
word: every once in a while
word: every now and then
word: every so often
word: from time to time
word: intermittently
word: irregularly
word: now and again
word: now and then
word: occasionally
word: on occasion
word: once in a while
word: sometimes
word: sporadically
word: uncommonly
word: while
word: whilom
glosses: On some occasions, over some periods, or in certain circumstances, but not always.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: For yee were sometimes darkenesse, but now are yee light in the Lord: walke as children of light […]
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ephesians 5:8:
text: 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.
ref: 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: word: at one time
word: in the past
word: sometime
word: afore
word: aforehand
word: already
word: antecedently
word: at one time
word: before
word: beforehand
word: beforetime
word: ere
word: erenow
word: erewhile
word: erstwhile
word: erstwhiles
word: foretime
word: formerly
word: in advance
word: in the past
word: late
word: once
word: precedently
word: previously
word: sometime
word: sometimes
word: therebefore
word: while
word: whilere
word: whilom
word: yestertide
word: yestertime
word: yet
glosses: On a certain occasion in the past; once.
Derived terms: Homer sometimes nods
sometimes a cigar is a cigar
sometimes a cigar is just a cigar
sometimes food
sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you
Related terms: sometime