desultory
lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.
Origin of desultory
1Other words from desultory
- des·ul·to·ri·ly, adverb
- des·ul·to·ri·ness, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use desultory in a sentence
The war council proceeded in a desultory fashion until finally a bulletin arrived reporting that the Enemy was most definitely headed straight for Bladensburg, a town just six miles northeast of the Capitol.
In 1814, British forces burned the U.S. Capitol | Joel Achenbach | January 6, 2021 | Washington PostBut, tired of playing, he had desultorily come round the fence, and was rambling up behind her.
Tess of the d'Urbervilles | Thomas HardyThe public—still feeling dissatisfied—watched desultorily for a while the doings in the imperial tribune.
"Unto Caesar" | Baroness Emmuska OrczyThen I sit at my flat black desk and write desultorily for two or three or four hours.
I, Mary MacLane | Mary MacLaneI cursed desultorily with a smooth whispered flow of curses, because the circumstances seemed to demand it.
I, Mary MacLane | Mary MacLane
The ensuing half-hour seemed long to the girl; Filippo talked desultorily, but there were intervals of silence.
Olive in Italy | Moray Dalton
British Dictionary definitions for desultory
/ (ˈdɛsəltərɪ, -trɪ) /
passing or jumping from one thing to another, esp in a fitful way; unmethodical; disconnected
occurring in a random or incidental way; haphazard: a desultory thought
Origin of desultory
1Derived forms of desultory
- desultorily, adverb
- desultoriness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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