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Desultory

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary · 1828

Part of speech: adjective (a.)

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.

Synonyms: Rambling; roving; immethodical; discursive; inconstant; unsettled; cursory; slight; hasty; loose.

Noah Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Structured JSON vendored from sktzofrenic/webster1828 at commit 5a58d9e0191eefaa51affbc1bb1b8bc5782ba6c0. The upstream README identifies the dictionary text as public domain and the project license as MIT.

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