ひっきりなしに
ひっきりなしに
adverb
continuously; incessantly; without a break
1.
continuously; incessantly; without a break
Describes something happening one after another without pause or interruption. Emphasizes the relentless, unbroken nature of an activity or occurrence.
電話がひっきりなしに鳴る。
The phone rings incessantly.
あの店にはひっきりなしに客が来る。
Customers come to that shop one after another without end.
年末は忘年会の予約がひっきりなしに入って、店は大忙しだった。
At year-end, reservations for year-end parties came in nonstop, and the restaurant was extremely busy.
Derived from 引っ切り無し (without a cut/break). The word suggests a stream of events with no gap between them. Very natural in spoken and written Japanese.
USAGE:
Most commonly used with verbs of motion, arrival, or occurrence — things coming and going, calls arriving, visitors appearing, etc. Less commonly used for a single continuous action; instead it implies repeated discrete events happening in rapid succession.
COMMON COLLOCATIONS:
- ひっきりなしに来る: to come one after another
- ひっきりなしに鳴る: to ring nonstop
- ひっきりなしに続く: to continue without letup
- ひっきりなしに訪れる: to visit incessantly
SIMILAR WORDS:
- 絶え間なく: without interruption — more literary
- 次から次へ: one after another — emphasizes sequence
- しきりに: frequently, repeatedly — implies high frequency but allows gaps