1 This occurs in an off-and-on cycle.

2 He was anxious about an off-and-on pain in the abdomen.

3 It takes several weeks of off-and-on practice to master the various knife techniques, but once learned they are never forgotten.

4 After years of off-and-on fighting that started in 1948, when Burma gained independence from Great Britain, the government reached cease-fire agreements with 17 groups beginning in 1989.

5 Autumn rain off-and-on, dampens the pavement, streaking the windows, leaving a fine layer of mist through which I am seeing the outside world in a tinted view.

6 The pursuit of a genuine variety of opinions that are well thought through and well grounded is essential. But that has an off-and-on, hit-or-miss connection with ethnic and racial diversity.

7 They argue that the government response has been largely limited to off-and-on campaigns in response to acute crises.

8 Mike Kuiack, an investment banker in Vancouver, British Columbia, who often travels to China, was an off-and-on student of Chinese for eight and a half years before he signed on to ChinesePod.