Wiktionary
n. (context idiomatic English) activity which is intermittent, variable in intensity, and prolonged by interruptions.
WordNet
n. repeated bursts of activity; "they worked in fits and starts"
Wikipedia
Fits and Starts is an art work by Brooklyn, New York City artist Marc Swanson, the 2005 vandalism of which at DePauw University created controversy.
Usage examples of "fits and starts".
A moment later they began to rise, by fits and starts at first, then more smoothly.
He moved upward slowly, by fits and starts at first, then more smoothly.
His neck was swelled and black, his chest rising in fits and starts.
A warm night like this, the stars, the summer moon just peeking his red lover's face over the horizon, it made her remember her girlhood again with all its strange fits and starts, its heats, its gorgeous vulnerability as it stood on the edge of the Mystery.
Silver ripples fan out ahead of her, teasing, showing her the way she should go, but her hand obstinately refuses to obey, slips from side to side, advancing in fits and starts that bring her closer and closer to the right-hand edge of the walk.
Not very fast, but they could draw up enough energy to lift it off the ground, and move it forward in fits and starts.
Trumpets sounded, a drum began to boom, the drawbridge descended in fits and starts, and Ser Edmure Tully led his men out from Riverrun with lances raised and banners streaming.
He was still in a marvelously good mood of self-satisfaction and had even unbent to make a few benign remarks to Mikkidu (which puzzled the latter mightily) and discourse safely by whimsical fits and starts with the wise, if somewhat taciturn, old Mingol.
The line for the Chamber of Horrors moved forward in fits and starts.
Its light brought her face out of the shadows, in fits and starts, fallen jaw and staring eyes.
By order of their Great Khan, a sizable horde of yellow-brown, slant-eyed Kalmyks and their kindred allies were, in fits and starts, withdrawing from the ravaged provinces of northeastern France.