hit and miss
Sometimes on, sometimes off
Hit and miss describes something inconsistent in quality or success—sometimes working, sometimes not.
A restaurant with hit and miss reviews has good nights and bad.
The weather has been hit and miss all week.
Also spelled hit-and-miss or hit-or-miss.
The phrase comes from attempts that either strike their target or fail to.
- attemptEffort to accomplish
- trial and errorLearning through repeated attempts
- successFavorable outcome attained
- dependabilityConsistent trustworthy nature
- randomnessLack of predictable pattern
failure · feast or famine · variability · hot and cold · irregularity · fluctuation · serendipity · pot luck · likelihood · patchy · unpredictability · inconsistency · trial · spotty · all over the place · endeavor · odds · erratic
- contra dancecontra dance, country dance, longways, caller, figure
- pairspair, pairs, two, duo, duos
- unpredictableunpredictable, uncertain, unreliable, erratic, inconsistent
hit and missconsistent
Not varying or contradicting
reliable · dependable · steady · uniform · predictable
hit and misssystematic
Following ordered procedures
methodical · precise · deliberate · calculated · planned
hit and missconsistent
Not varying or contradicting
uniform · even · homogeneous · standardized