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occasional

[uh-key-zhuh-nl]

Example Sentences Origin

adjective

occurring or appearing at irregular or infrequent intervals; occurring now and then: an occasional headache.

intended for supplementary use when needed: an occasional chair.

pertaining to, arising out of, or intended for the occasion: occasional verses.

acting or serving for the occasion or only on particular occasions.

serving as the occasion or incidental cause.

Origin:
1560–70; occasion + -al¹

Related forms

oc·ca·sion·al·ness, oc·ca·sion·al·i·ty, noun

un·oc·ca·sion·al, adjective

un·oc·ca·sion·al·ly, adverb

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source

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Occasional is always a great word to know.

So is slumgullion. Does it mean:

the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.

a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc.

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Example Sentences

His occasional series of columns covers the game, its controversies and what it has taught him about everyday life.

Occasional travel to attend professional conferences/meetings required.

Japan's occasional attempts at economic reform are a gruesome sight.

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His occasional series of columns covers the game, its controversies and what it has taught him about everyday life.

Occasional travel to attend professional conferences/meetings required.

Japan's occasional attempts at economic reform are a gruesome sight.

Expect little traffic, but watch out for the occasional reindeer.

But itching-“pruritus,” to physicians-is more than an occasional nuisance.

Pregnant women were even advised to have an occasional pint.

Occasional deep watering and periodic feeding will help keep roots deep.

So for errands and the occasional weekend getaway, a car-sharing setup can save you time and money.

His occasional series of columns covers the game, its controversies and what it has taught him about every day life.

Responsibilities will be primarily research, with occasional teaching with a focus on practice.

But they are interrupted by the occasional hoot of pleasure.

There are also guest ales, occasional beer festivals, and delicious food in the evenings.

Dust, dirt, and the occasional bird-bomb can chip away at the efficiency of solar panels.

Most museum goers confine themselves to murmurs of appreciation or the occasional reverent flip of a program page.

Plants respond to heavy pruning but rarely need more than the occasional snip to correct their shape.

Occasional volcanic eruptions had layered minerals throughout the outcrops.

We're going to have our occasional high score here and there.

Evening and occasional weekend availability required.

Yet the growth of emerging economies is unlikely to continue at the same rapid pace or without occasional downturns.

Only debris and the occasional bubbles from her breathing tank are visible.

Many of us enjoy an occasional bedtime chat with a loved one who is far away.

Plus, this one's made of vinyl urethane, requiring occasional dusting but no food whatsoever.

Does well with only occasional deep irrigation in summer.

My iPhone has become my kids' occasional babysitter.

He recalls childhood visits to the museum with his parents on their occasional trips to the city.

Less-glamorous gigs involve needles, knives, and the occasional colonoscope.

Despite an occasional combative streak, the media hardly ever report corruption cases without official approval.

Shipping fuels can also consume a lot of energy, and creates an occasional environmental disaster such as an oil spill.

The natural bounty of those places made the occasional hurricane or tsunami tolerable.

The arid landscape is punctuated only by the occasional anemic acacia tree or red-stone formation rising from the sand.

Small, closely set leaves and tolerance for an occasional footstep make them choice selections for use between steppingstones.

Occasional mistakes set me back a bit, and made it important to do the puzzles in pencil.

As such, part of my job involves catching the occasional plagiarist.

Occasional resistant individuals occur but, in the short to medium term, a severe population decline is expected.

Many telescopes, he notes, are already programmed to account for the occasional addition of leap seconds.

And estuaries are populated by fishes, birds, snails and maybe the occasional otter.

No one talks but for the occasional murmur, tactfully hidden behind fan or hand.

They need good soil, good drainage, and occasional feeding with controlled-release fertilizer.

Mixed in with your run-of-the-mill soybeans and the occasional mysterious missing bean are a number of notable aberrations.

Flexible hours to be established by each campus and will include occasional weekends and holidays.

Life also brings problems that money cannot solve: occasional volcanic eruptions, more frequent earthquakes, and winter.

Animals face occasional hazards at the many plantations near the park.

Like many young people, the brothers snuck the occasional beer or cigarette and experimented with marijuana.

The payoffs for a few stray pet hairs and the occasional drop of drool are enormous, however.

Once rosemary is established, occasional deep watering is almost all it needs.

There are occasional typhoons that bring high winds and floods.

But occasional fighting continues between militants and coalition troops who are moving from house to house.

In fact a four-wheel-drive is recommended, as are occasional stops to avoid car sickness.

I've also had occasional sensations of someone else being in the room, sometimes getting a pleasant back rub.

It deals with dinosaur news, implications of research, and occasional fun thought experiments.

Though they require an occasional watering during especially dry years, these tough plants get by almost entirely on rainfall.

The occasional adolescent who took the whole summer off was considered slothful and spoiled.

Never mind the occasional snapping turtle or snake that gets in the way.

These two taboos only receive an occasional voice when someone dares to suggest teaching these topics in the school system.

Here there are no earthquakes, no fires and only the occasional hurricane.

Combine this with with occasional live music and plant sales, and you have a birthday bash to remember.

Lately, though, the good news has been tempered with the occasional sign suggesting a less rosy picture.

Bruse managed to reach a hospital-and survived, but the eastern diamond-back still claims an occasional life.

It's as if you are coasting through the air with the occasional kick to the ground to keep you out.

But he received nothing more than an occasional reprimand.

The plant benefits from occasional tip pruning to keep it bushy and should last outdoors until frost.

And that is more than enough to cause occasional mayhem.

Brake for wild turkeys and the occasional black bear.

Food wasn't scarce, though it took some ingenuity and the occasional suspension of the laws of science.

Grow well in enriched or unamended soil, and with regular or only occasional irrigation.

Ever since, it has suffered from continual droop, punctuated by the occasional outright collapse.

The extra heft gives it the juice to tackle the occasional dirt road or rail trail.

Nothing else but this food, except an occasional change to broiled mutton.

Anacharis and water lettuce are vigorous growers and require occasional thinning.

Fossil teeth, and the occasional skeleton, show that small mammals were common at this time.

Disputes begin with high-speed chases and the occasional beak jab.

Yes, the occasional element-a horse's head, a reclining youth-registers sharp and clear.

Can survive an occasional missed irrigation but look better with regular moisture.

Although she received occasional commissions for portraits, she sold relatively few paintings during her lifetime.

Quite drought tolerant but looks best with occasional deep watering add to my plant list.

Not sure why anyone with a scientific background would scoff at the idea of a large lauropod taking occasional animal prey.

Multiplies and spreads from corms with little care beyond occasional weeding.

Try to keep established plants healthy with occasional deep watering and feeding add to my plant list.

In the garden, it is extremely drought tolerant but will grow faster with occasional summer water.

Endures heat and drought but does better with occasional water add to my plant list.

Soaker hoses work well for occasional deep watering of established trees.

They need moderate water and occasional feeding to stay strong.

Such varieties still produce an occasional female plant add to my plant list.

Can take extreme drought, but look best with occasional deep soakings.

While the news offers the occasional story about the fate of an outspoken.

There will be occasional diplomatic stand-offs with the.

Only occasional errors occur-about one for every billion base-pair.

Permission is not required for sending an occasional copy of an article to a few.

I'd always imagined pirates as one-eyed buccaneers hardened by heavy doses of rum and occasional bouts of scurvy.

Life goes on, with its occasional celebrations and frequent setbacks.

There are the pleasant surprises, the perfect toys, and the occasional unsightly outfits.

Tensions surface in the mysterious occasional harangues in the press against those.

Some three dozen species are harvested the occasional giant catfish is generally caught by accident.

Also pigs, goats, donkeys and the occasional ostrich.

Occasional walks and/or shuttle transportation to attend meetings at other university campuses may be necessary.

Only an occasional banana grove or superannuated rubber plantation offers a spot of variety.

Telltale deposits of debris suggest that sediments were washed downhill by occasional liquid flows.

In fact, he was feisty and prone to occasional angry outbursts.

There is a tower redoubt, baking and blacksmithing demonstrations and occasional black powder cannon firings.

Foray into the forum's literature, pleasure reading, and the occasional academic article or two.

The occasional whumph and crack of the settling glacier could still be heard through the cold air.

Occasionally a duststorm will blanket a region or even several states and there are reports of the occasional large tornado.

The duplication of official bodies has, however, caused occasional problems in negotiations with operating companies.

It's mostly flat, with occasional small climbs and descents, sometimes steep.

Their plight has drawn occasional attention from newspapers and magazines.

There are occasional views and campsite-friendly lakes.

He also takes the occasional commission for aerial.

Still, the potential benefits of these boards outweigh the occasional conflicts.

It found that roughly a quarter of the edits posted by occasional contributors were undone in.

The trouble, of course, is that each of us is also vulnerable to flubbing up the occasional social norm.

The shrub is easy to grow, needing little fussing beyond watering, occasional feeding.

The dean position does carry some occasional teaching duties.

All of us have occasional sleepless nights, but for people with fatal familial insomnia, it's the beginning of the end.

They called the occasional third full moon in that season in which there happened to be four a blue moon.

Simply writing the occasional article is arguably not sufficient evidence of scholarship.

Aside from occasional bits of horrible writing, he does it justice.

The pervasive silence is broken only by the occasional canoe paddle or the riffle of an angry bonefish.

Well that'll make terraforming easier, except for the occasional mudslide as the groundwater melts and mobilises.

Faculty members cannot sit around waiting to be called by a reporter or writing an occasional op-ed.

He had a helicopter landing pad built on the ship which enabled him to fly in for an occasional hour or two of filming.

Even today the portrait of the pygmies is being slowly sketched in from details gleaned from occasional strandings and bycatch.

Random, occasional hiccups in the constants almost certainly would go undetected.

We make them for special occasions and they are as harmful as an occasional doughnut.

One of the perks of academia is the opportunity for occasional travel to conferences, archives, or field-work.

Some of the poorer camp inmates make money from occasional odd jobs and manual labour.

There are roaming patrols of rebels, roaming groups of bandits, occasional patrols by the army.

There have always been occasional reports of aquatic animals falling from the sky.

There were occasional lulls in the drumming outside:.

There is an occasional exception to the rule that governments should keep out of agriculture.

We drifted silently, save for occasional blasts from the propane burners, which kept us aloft.

For those willing to commit to periodic occasional maintenance, linoleum flooring should last decades if not longer.

Models simulating centuries of warming normally have the occasional decade in which no rise in surface temperatures is observed.

However, in even the healthiest gardens, the occasional pest or weed problem can jeopardize plants.

The reason why inbreeding was banned in the first place, was because of the obvious outcome of occasional birth defects.

They all work full time, so e-mail and the occasional phone call have to do.

There is the occasional snowfield to cross early in the.

Occasional work parties, he says, may be needed for many years to prevent the plant's return.

More significant still, drinking is done in occasional binges rather than frequent sips.

There is silence except for the sound of a slow surf, crickets, and the occasional hee-haa of a donkey in the village below.

Plus you actually do get occasional medical breakthroughs as a by product.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

occasional (əˈkeɪʒən^əl)

—*adj*
1.	taking place from time to time; not frequent or regular
2.	of, for, or happening on special occasions
3.	serving as an occasion (for something)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

occasional

1560s, "casual," from occasion. Meaning "happening on or pertaining to a particular occasion" is from 1630s; that of "once in a while" is from 1620s.

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