Desultory
Contents
English
Adjective
Desultory (comparative more Desultory, superlative most Desultory)
- Jumping, or passing, from one thing or subject to another, without order or rational connection; without logical sequence; disconnected; immethodical; aimless.
- He wandered round, cleaning up in a desultory way.
- I teach a class of desultory minds.
- Out of course; by the way; as a digression; not connected with the subject.
- I made a desultory remark while I was talking to my friend.
- She made a desultory attempt at conversation.
- Disappointing in performance or progress.
- (obsolete) Leaping, skipping or flitting about, generally in a random or unsteady manner.
Adverbs for Desultory
merely; Irregularly; disconnectedly; lazily; quaintly; exasperatingly; fatally; carelessly; unsystematically; heedlessly; negligently; nonchalantly; indifferently; blithely; smilingly; wantonly; intolerably; imper-turbably; vexatiously; unluckily; placidly; serenely; plaguedly.
Synonyms for Desultory
cursory, rambling, abnormal, flighty, loose, irregular, discursive, wandering, superficial, unsettled, erratic.
Antonyms for Desultory
firm, steady, regular, methodical, unalterable, fixed, permanent, stable, determined, constant.
Derived terms
Thesaurus
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
Etymology
From Latin desultorius (“hasty, casual, superficial”), from desultor (“a circus rider who jumped from one galloping horse to another”), from dēsiliō (“jump down”), from dē (“down”) + saliō (“jump, leap”)
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA: /ˈdɛs.əl.tə.ɹi/, SAMPA: /"[email protected]@.rI/
- (US) IPA: /ˈdɛs.əlˌtɔɹ.i/, /ˈdɛz.əlˌtɔɹ.i/, SAMPA: /"[email protected]/
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,Audio (US) noicon (file) Audio (US) noicon (file)
Translations
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References
- Desultory in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
