Sometimes

adv. 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 sb.]

  1.  On some occasions; at times; now and then. Cf. SOMETIME 1.

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. 419. 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.  Shaks., Wint. T., III. iii. 20. Sometimes her head on one side, some another.]

1634.  Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 87–8. 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, trans. 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 sometimes 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.

  † 2.  = SOMETIME 2 a and 2 b. Obs.

  Freq. from c. 1580 to c. 1650.

1563.  Homilies, II. Matrimony, Vvvv 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 sometimes 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.  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, Alch., V. v. (1612), M 3 b. The goods, sometimes the Orphanes, that the Brethren Bought with their Siluer pence.

  † d.  = SOMETIME 2 f. Obs.

1593.  Shaks., 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.  Charlotte 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], trans. Caussin’s Holy Crt., 384. One should not … omit at sometimes 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.