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
Words Nearby desultory
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use desultory in a sentence
The Americans and their allies are carrying out a desultory air campaign in Syria that appears focused on support for the Kurds.
Yammara has been sleeping in desultory fashion with a student, Aura, who then turns up pregnant and moves in with him.
Haunted by the Coca Leaf in ‘The Sound of Things Falling’ | Susan Straight | July 31, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTHis closing argument was a “desultory mess,” so bad that he lost the case.
Errol Morris’s “A Wilderness of Error” Revisits Jeffrey MacDonald Case | Raymond Bonner | August 30, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTMost of that is the desultory ticky-tacky kind that litters the right side of people's Facebook profiles.
Libya sank into civil war with NATO's desultory participation taking it toward stalemate, maybe even break-up.
A desultory conversation on politics, in which neither took the slightest interest, was a safe neutral ground.
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume I (of 3) | Charles James WillsIn the lulls, Robert and his mother exchanged bits of desultory conversation.
The Awakening and Selected Short Stories | Kate ChopinThe exchange, however, was still the field where a desultory fight was kept up by the shareholders.
Black Diamonds | Mr JkaiAnd you will find I have a good deal of what you have, only mine in a perfectly desultory manner, as is necessary to 358 an exile.
The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 25 (of 25) | Robert Louis StevensonTheir desultory discourse was soon interrupted by their arrival at the cottage of Mr. Wharton.
The Spy | J. Fenimore Cooper
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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