feast-or-famine

[feest-er-fam-in]

adjective

1. characterized by alternating, extremely high and low degrees of prosperity, success, volume of business, etc..

   artists who lead a feast-or-famine life.

Idioms and Phrases

Also, either feast or famine. Either too much or too little, too many or too few. For example, Free-lancers generally find it's feast or famine—too many assignments or too few, or Yesterday two hundred showed up at the fair, today two dozen—it's either feast or famine. This expression, which transfers an overabundance or shortage of food to numerous other undertakings, was first recorded in 1732 as feast or fast, the noun famine being substituted in the early 1900s.

Example Sentences

Pope's stats mask a feast-or-famine career – before this game 34% of his Test runs had come in only six of his previous 98 knocks.

From BBC

Caleb Love, guard, Arizona — Love is a feast-or-famine shooter who can get hot and have a huge game or come out as cold as an ice plunge.

From Los Angeles Times

“He’s below the desired NFL mark on height and weight for an outside cornerback, which could hurt his draft slotting. Smith-Wade is a sticky man-cover corner when he gets into the receiver and he has closing burst that can make up for lost ground. He can be feast-or-famine in zone coverage, as he tends to look to jump short throws and loses his deep-cover responsibility. He could end up outplaying his draft slot due to his ball skills, competitiveness and athletic traits.”

From Seattle Times

Indeed, though he remains a feast-or-famine presence in the middle of the Dodgers lineup, Muncy has felt a better balance with his swing and approach to start this season.

From Los Angeles Times

He says with California’s “feast-or-famine” hydrology growing more intense, the state needs the equivalent of a larger “savings account,” and smarter ways of banking water — such as making room for seasonal flooding among Central Valley farmlands to replenish groundwater.

From Los Angeles Times