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feast-or-famine

adjective

Definition of feast-or-famine

: marked by extremes (as of success and failure or prosperity and depression)
  • ski-area operators agree that theirs is uniquely a feast-or-famine business
  • —William Gilman
  • it follows … that mineral exploitation is a feast-or-famine industry
  • —H. A. Meyerhoff

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