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.
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