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The plague, the famine, the earthquake, the tempest were too spasmodic in their action; the tiger and crocodile were too easily satiated and not cruel enough: something more constantly, more ruthlessly, more ingeniously destructive was needed; and that something was Man, the inventor of the rack, the stake, the gallows, and the electrocutor; of the sword and gun; above all, of justice, duty, patriotism and all the other isms by which even those who are clever enough to be humanely…
There are no more uses of "spasmodic" in the book.
Show samples from other sources
—I wonder if your eyes and ears ever make anything save spasmodic contact with your brain.
Harper Lee -- Go Set a Watchman
She sits and her cane flexes against the gravel and the boy clicks his buttons in spasmodic flurries.