sometimes, adv.
(ˈsʌmtaɪmz)
Forms: 6 somtymes, 6–7 -times; Sc. 6 sum tymes, 8 -tyms; 6 sometymes, 6– sometimes.
[f. some a.1 7 + times pl. of time n.]
1. a. On some occasions; at times; now and then. Cf. sometime 1 a.
| 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 41 b, He..sheweth vs somtymes the softe rodde of his swete disciplyne. 1578 Gosson in Sch. Abuse (Arb.) 77 The Poet which sometimes hath trod awry. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 87 Hither sometimes the King repaires. 1674 Brevint Saul at Endor 213 Just as notable Rogues are hanged and quartered somtimes with their Pardons about their Necks. 1749 Smollett Gil Blas xii. xi. (1782) IV. 262 Three famous physicians, who had the reputation of curing their patients sometimes. 1780 Mirror No. 105, I mean those little lectures on morality, sometimes known by the name of scandal. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. x. II. 565 Sometimes he spoke so haughtily that the rustics..were provoked into making insolent replies. 1884 R. W. Church Bacon iii. 60 He liked..to generalise in shrewd and sometimes cynical epigrams. |
b. With a correlative (see quots. and cf. sometime 1 b and c).
| (a) 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. vi. 3 Sometimes she sung, as loud as larke in aire, Sometimes she laught [etc.]. [1611 Shakes. Wint. T. iii. iii. 20 Sometimes her head on one side, some another.] 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 87 A streame of water, sometimes so broad as the Thames at London, but other sometimes neere dried vp. 1678 Bunyan Pilgr. i. 42 Somtimes sighingly and somtimes comfortably. 1728 Law Serious Call x. (1898) 129 To be sometimes chaste and modest, and sometimes not. 1776 Trial of Nundocomar 22/2 Sometimes he wrote the bonds himself in Nagree, sometimes in Bengal, but always signed them with his own hand. 1849 M. Arnold Strayed Reveller 265 Sometimes a wild-hair'd Mænad; Sometimes a Faun with torches; And sometimes.. the divine, Belov'd Iacchus. 1901 Cycl. Tour. Club Gaz. Oct. 389 Running downhill, sometimes with, and sometimes without, a brake. |
| (b) 1600 J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa vii. 294 Sometimes he bringeth not home slaues enough to satisfie the merchants: and otherwhiles they are constrained to awaite there a whole yeere. 1674 Ray Catal. Fishes 107 Sometimes they kill them by striking them cross the snout with a pole, otherwhiles they shoot them. 1736 Ainsworth i. s.v., They are some⁓times of this opinion, and at other times of another. 1819 Shelley Peter Bell 3rd ii. ii, Sometimes The Devil is a gentleman; At others a bard [etc.]. 1897 [see otherwhiles 2]. |
| (c) 1602 B. Jonson Poetaster ii. ii, Sometimes froward, and then frowning, Sometimes sickish, and then swowning. 1667 Milton P.L. vi. 242 Somtimes on firm ground.., then soaring on main wing. 1815 Shelley Alastor 496 Sometimes it fell Among the moss... Now on the polished stones It danced. |
c. Used adjectivally to denote ‘occasional’. Cf. sometime adv. (and a.) 1 d.
| a 1945 E. R. Eddison Mezentian Gate (1958) i. v. 44 Nor did they find wholesome nor comfortable..his sometimes flashings into unforeknowable violence. 1974 Publishers Weekly 11 Feb. 56/3 Brando's sometimes generosity, his idealism. 1977 Rolling Stone 13 Jan. 36/2 Srouji confessed her entire FBI history, starting with her role in the Sixties as a sometimes informant. |
† 2. a. = sometime 2 a and 2 b. Obs.
Freq. from c 1580 to c 1650.
| 1563 Homilies ii. Matrimony V vvv j b, And S. Peter saith in that same place.., that holy matrones dyd sometymes decke them selues, not with golde and syluer: but in puttynge theyr whole hope in God. 1576 Gascoigne Philomene Wks. 1910 II. 182 In Athens reignde somtimes, A king of worthy fame. 1627 Hakewill Apol. (1630) 374 There is at this day to be seene a board belonging sometimes to Tullius Cicero. 1642 D. Rogers Naaman Ep. Ded. 3 The blessed lights of his ministers, who sometimes shined in our Sphere, but now in Glory. 1665 J. Webb Stone-Heng (1725) 157 The Place where Habor..was some⁓times betrayed, imprisoned, and executed. |
† b. = sometime 2 d. Obs.
Freq. from c 1600 to c 1650.
| 1577 Hanmer Anc. Eccl. Hist., Socrates, Schol. v. xi, Probus, sometimes a Consul, was chief governour of Italy. 1592 in J. Morris Troubles Cath. Forefathers (1877) 37 John Thomas, sometimes Bishop Goldwell's man, died in the Counter. a 1619 M. Fotherby Atheom. ii. vii. §2 (1622) 262 Thebes in ægypt, and Orchomenus, sometimes two rich and populous Cities, but now reduced. 1650 T. B[ayley] Worcester's Apoph. 26 An old ruinated, but sometimes a most famous monastery. 1709 Strype Ann. Ref. I. xxxiv. 340 One Games, sometimes School-Master of the Choristers in Magdalen College. |
† c. = sometime 2 e. Obs.—1
| 1610 B. Jonson Alchemist v. v, The goods, sometimes the Orphanes, that the Brethren Bought with their siluer pence. |
† d. = sometime 2 f. Obs.
| 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, i. ii. 54 Farewell old Gaunt, thy sometimes brothers wife..must end her life. Ibid. v. v. 75 Leaue To looke vpon my (sometimes Royall) masters face. 1632 Lithgow Trav. ii. 70 Sparta, where that sometimes famous Citty of Lacedemon flourished. 1798 C. Smith Yng. Philos. I. 72 Excelled only by her sometimes tutoress. |
† 3. at sometimes, = sense 1. Obs.
| 1548 Elyot, Aliquoties, at sometymes. 1584 Lodge Alarum (Shaks. Soc.) 60 Manye gentlemen..who at sometimes, as well as yourselfe, were destitute of silver. 1626 T. H[awkins] tr. Caussin's Holy Crt. 384 One should not..omit at some⁓times to eleuate his hart to God. 1682 Bunyan Holy War (1905) 202 Yea, the Rascal crue, at sometimes would be for destroying of him. 1719 W. Wood Surv. Trade 4 Those mighty Fleets, that have at sometimes, and when rightly governed, rendered her the Terror of the Ocean. |