Meaning of DESULTORY
| Pronunciation: | | 'desul`towree
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 WordNet Dictionary |
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| | Definition: | | [adj] marked by lack of definite plan or regularity or purpose; jumping from one thing to another; "desultory thoughts"; "the desultory conversation characteristic of cocktail parties" |
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| | Synonyms: | | purposeless |
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| Webster's 1913 Dictionary |
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| | Definition: | | \Des"ul*to*ry\, a. [L. desultorius, fr. desultor a
leaper, fr. desilire, desultum, to leap down; de + salire to
leap. See {Saltation}.]
1. Leaping or skipping about. [Obs.]
I shot at it [a bird], but it was so desultory that
I missed my aim. --Gilbert
White.
2. Jumping, or passing, from one thing or subject to another,
without order or rational connection; without logical
sequence; disconnected; immethodical; aimless; as,
desultory minds. --Atterbury.
He [Goldsmith] knew nothing accurately; his reading
had been desultory. --Macaulay.
3. Out of course; by the way; as a digression; not connected
with the subject; as, a desultory remark.
Syn: Rambling; roving; immethodical; discursive; inconstant;
unsettled; cursory; slight; hasty; loose.
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| Thesaurus Terms |
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| | Related Terms: | | aberrant, aberrative, adrift, afloat, aimless, alternating, amorphous, broken, by the way, capricious, careening, casual, catchy, changeable, changeful, chaotic, choppy, circuitous, dancing, dangerous, departing, designless, deviable, deviant, deviating, deviative, deviatory, devious, digressive, disarticulated, disconnected, discontinuous, discursive, disjunct, disordered, disorderly, disorganized, dispersed, disproportionate, dizzy, eccentric, episodic, errant, erratic, excursive, fast and loose, fickle, fitful, flickering, flickery, flicky, flighty, flitting, fluctuating, fluttering, fluttery, formless, freakish, frivolous, giddy, gratuitous, guttering, halting, haphazard, hazardous, herky-jerky, heteroclite, hit-or-miss, immethodical, impetuous, impulsive, inchoate, incoherent, inconsistent, inconstant, indecisive, indirect, indiscriminate, infirm, insecure, insubstantial, intermittent, intermitting, irregular, irresolute, irresponsible, jerky, labyrinthine, loose, lurching, maundering, mazy, meandering, meaningless, mercurial, misshapen, moody, nonsymmetrical, nonsystematic, nonuniform, on-again-off-again, orderless, out-of-the-way, patchy, perilous, planetary, planless, precarious, promiscuous, provisional, purposeless, rambling, random, restless, risky, rough, roving, scatterbrained, scrappy, senseless, serpentine, shaky, shapeless, shifting, shifty, shuffling, slippery, snaky, snatchy, spasmatic, spasmic, spasmodic, spastic, spineless, spluttering, sporadic, spotty, sputtering, sputtery, staggering, straggling, straggly, stray, swerving, systemless, temporary, tentative, ticklish, treacherous, turning, twisting, unaccountable, unarranged, uncertain, unclassified, unconsidered, uncontrolled, undependable, undirected, undisciplined, unequal, uneven, unfaithworthy, unfixed, ungraded, unjoined, unmethodical, unmetrical, unordered, unorganized, unplanned, unpredictable, unregular, unreliable, unrestrained, unrhythmical, unsettled, unsolid, unsorted, unsound, unstable, unstable as water, unstaid, unsteadfast, unsteady, unsubstantial, unsure, unsymmetrical, unsystematic, untrustworthy, ununiform, vacillating, vagrant, vague, variable, veering, vicissitudinary, vicissitudinous, volatile, wandering, wanton, wavering, wavery, wavy, wayward, whimsical, winding, wishy-washy, wobbling, wobbly, zigzag |
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