"on-again, off-again" meaning in English

{
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      "expansion": "on-again, off-again (not comparable)",
      "name": "en-adj"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
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          "text": "But the screenplay, from Supernatural creator Eric Kripke, diverts too often to inert scenes of Lewis’ struggles at school, and a subplot about his on-again, off-again friendship with bully Tarby Corrigan (Sunny Suljic) feels like a distraction from the magical business at hand.",
          "type": "quotation"
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        {
          "ref": "2023 January 2, Maureen O’Connor, “The Etiquette Guru Who Broke Up With a Boyfriend Over Text”, in The New York Times, →ISSN",
          "text": "On the ninth day of filming Netflix’s “Mind Your Manners,” the show’s host, the Shanghai etiquette teacher Sara Jane Ho, dumped her on-again-off-again boyfriend of four years in a text message.",
          "type": "quotation"
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Intermittent; frequent but irregular."
      ],
      "id": "en-on-again,_off-again-en-adj-hH4Kiw9Y",
      "links": [
        [
          "significant other",
          "significant other"
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        [
          "Intermittent",
          "intermittent"
        ],
        [
          "frequent",
          "frequent"
        ],
        [
          "irregular",
          "irregular"
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(of a significant other such as a boyfriend or girlfriend) Intermittent; frequent but irregular."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "of a significant other such as a boyfriend or girlfriend"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "on-off"
        },
        {
          "word": "on-again-off-again"
        },
        {
          "word": "on-again off-again"
        },
        {
          "word": "on again, off again"
        },
        {
          "word": "on again off again"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "not-comparable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "on-again, off-again"
}

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      "expansion": "on-again, off-again (not comparable)",
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
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          "text": "But the screenplay, from Supernatural creator Eric Kripke, diverts too often to inert scenes of Lewis’ struggles at school, and a subplot about his on-again, off-again friendship with bully Tarby Corrigan (Sunny Suljic) feels like a distraction from the magical business at hand.",
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          "text": "On the ninth day of filming Netflix’s “Mind Your Manners,” the show’s host, the Shanghai etiquette teacher Sara Jane Ho, dumped her on-again-off-again boyfriend of four years in a text message.",
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Intermittent; frequent but irregular."
      ],
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          "significant other",
          "significant other"
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        [
          "Intermittent",
          "intermittent"
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          "frequent",
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(of a significant other such as a boyfriend or girlfriend) Intermittent; frequent but irregular."
      ],
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        "of a significant other such as a boyfriend or girlfriend"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "not-comparable"
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "on-off"
    },
    {
      "word": "on-again-off-again"
    },
    {
      "word": "on-again off-again"
    },
    {
      "word": "on again, off again"
    },
    {
      "word": "on again off again"
    }
  ],
  "word": "on-again, off-again"
}