digress

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English

Etymology

From Latin digressum, past participle of digredi.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /daɪˈɡɹɛs/, /dɪˈɡɹɛs/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Audio (General Australian):(file)
  • Hyphenation: di‧gress
  • Rhymes: -ɛs

Verb

digress (third-person singular simple present digresses, present participle digressing, simple past and past participle digressed)

  1. (intransitive) To step or turn aside; to deviate; to swerve; especially, to turn aside from the main subject of attention, or course of argument, in writing or speaking.
    • 1601, C Plinius Secundus , “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. , (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: Adam Islip, →OCLC:
      Moreover she beginneth to digress in latitude.
    • 1689 (indicated as 1690), , chapter 3, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. , London: Eliz Holt, for Thomas Basset, , →OCLC:
      In the pursuit of an argument there is hardly room to digress into a particular definition as often as a man varies the signification of any term.
    • 1959, “In Old Mexico”, Tom Lehrer (music):
      For I hadn't had so much fun since the day / my brother's dog Rover / got run over. / (Rover was killed by a Pontiac. And it was done with such grace and artistry that the witnesses awarded the driver both ears and the tail – but I digress.)
  2. (intransitive) To turn aside from the right path; to transgress; to offend.

Usage notes

Often heard in the set phrase But I digress, where the word behaves as a stative verb, whereas it otherwise patterns as a dynamic verb.

Synonyms

  • (turn from the course of argument): sidetrack

Derived terms

Translations