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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

on-again, off-again en · ADJ

Meanings

  1. (not-comparable, of a significant other such as a boyfriend or girlfriend) Intermittent; frequent but irregular.
    • On the ninth day of filming Netflix’s “Mind Your Manners,” the show’s host, the Shanghai etiquette teacher Sara Jane Ho, dumped her on-again-off-again boyfriend of four years in a text message. 2023 January 2, Maureen O’Connor, “The Etiquette Guru Who Broke Up With a Boyfriend Over Text”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
    • But the screenplay, from Supernatural creator Eric Kripke, diverts too often to inert scenes of Lewis’ struggles at school, and a subplot about his on-again, off-again friendship with bully Tarby Corrigan (Sunny Suljic) feels like a distraction from the magical business at hand. 2018 September 19, Katie Rife, “Eli Roth, of all directors, brings Amblin magic to the kid-lit horror of The House With A Clock In Its Walls”, in The Onion AV Club, archived from the original on 20 Sep 2018:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
on-again-off-again alternative lexicographic
on again, off again alternative lexicographic
on-again off-again alternative lexicographic
on again off again alternative lexicographic

Relateds

love-hate

Synonyms

on-off