dissertate
Americanverb (used without object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of dissertate
First recorded in 1760–70; probably back formation from dissertation
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Mr. Brown, who had always met my advances with a grim taciturnity that made conversation exceedingly difficult, proceeded to dissertate upon one or two of the vexed questions of the day.
From An Amiable Charlatan by Oppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips)
Not that Hilda could dissertate, or talk learnedly about pictures; she would probably have been puzzled by the technical terms of her own art.
From The Marble Faun - Volume 1 The Romance of Monte Beni by Hawthorne, Nathaniel
In a moment Billy came out ready to dissertate at length.
From The Westerners by White, Stewart Edward
One thing I can do—pencil, if you like, and annotate, and dissertate upon that I love most and least—I think I can do it, that is.
From The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett, Vol. 1 (of 2) 1845-1846 by Browning, Robert
“Whom,” not what—a person, not a system; we “proclaim,” not we argue or dissertate about.
From The Expositor's Bible: Colossians and Philemon by Maclaren, Alexander
Rio editors dissertated on the significance of the occasion.
From Time Magazine Archive
Many writers who have dissertated upon Japan during the past couple of decades seem to have imagined that they had discovered it, and their impressions have been penned from that standpoint.
From The Empire of the East by Montgomery, H. B. (Helen Barrett)
The little doctor sat in the darkest room and dissertated cannily on the strange variety of subjects which a Scotchman can always bring up on the most ordinary occasions.
From The Claim Jumpers by White, Stewart Edward
Bert Taylor dissertated sometimes on one phase of the subject, sometimes on another.
From The Gray Dawn by White, Stewart Edward
Or with long instructive finger he dissertated on the celestial universe.
From There's Pippins and Cheese to Come by Brooks, Charles S. (Charles Stephen)
He knows me well enough to understand that when I’m dissertating on the merits of tufted cushions, I’m chewing on something else.
From New York Times ● Sep. 23, 2016
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
