• Sometimes

    Pronunciation

    • enPR: sÅ­mʹtÄ«mz, IPA: /ˈsÊŒmtaɪmz/
    • Hyphenation: some + times

    Origin

    From some + times.

    Full definition of sometimes

    Adverb

    sometimes

    1. On certain occasions, or in certain circumstances, but not always. from 16th c.
      Sometimes I sit and think, but mostly I just sit.
      • Jeremy TaylorIt is good that we sometimes be contradicted.
      • 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 5, 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.
      • 2013-06-08, Obama goes troll-hunting, 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.
    2. (obsolete) On a certain occasion in the past; once. 16th-17th c.
      • William ShakespeareThat fair and warlike form
        In which the majesty of buried Denmark
        Did sometimes march.
      • 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, II.3.7:they detract, scoffe, and raile (saith one), and bark at me on every side; but I, like that Albanian dog sometimes given to Alexander for a present, vindico me ab illis solo contemptu; I lie still, and sleep, vindicate myself by contempt alone.

    Adjective

    sometimes

    1. (obsolete) former; sometimeThy sometimes brother's wife. — Shakespeare.
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