Both Uses

spasmodic
in
Great Expectations
(Auto-generated)

Instantly afterwards, the company were seized with unspeakable consternation, owing to his springing to his feet, turning round several times in an appalling spasmodic whooping-cough dance, and rushing out at the door; he then became visible through the window, violently plunging and expectorating, making the most hideous faces, and apparently out of his mind.†
p. 28.5
Nothing disturbed the tranquillity of the Castle, but the occasional tumbling open of John and Miss Skiffins: which little doors were a prey to some spasmodic infirmity that made me sympathetically uncomfortable until I got used to it.†
p. 316.4 *

Definitions:

(1) (spasmodic)
happening for short periods and not in a regular pattern; or relating to muscle spasms
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)