fits and starts

1. 1.

   repeated bursts of activity

   “they worked in fits and starts”

   Broaderburst

Questions about fits and starts

What does fits and starts mean?

fits and starts means "repeated bursts of activity".

Is fits and starts a common word?

fits and starts is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.