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desultory
[ des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee ]
adjective
- lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful:
desultory conversation.
- digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random:
a desultory remark.
desultory
/ -trɪ; ˈdɛsəltərɪ /
adjective
- passing or jumping from one thing to another, esp in a fitful way; unmethodical; disconnected
- occurring in a random or incidental way; haphazard
a desultory thought
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Derived Forms
- ˈdesultoriness, noun
- ˈdesultorily, adverb
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Other Words From
- desul·tori·ly adverb
- desul·tori·ness noun
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Word History and Origins
Origin of desultory1
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Word History and Origins
Origin of desultory1
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Example Sentences
The Americans and their allies are carrying out a desultory air campaign in Syria that appears focused on support for the Kurds.
Yammara has been sleeping in desultory fashion with a student, Aura, who then turns up pregnant and moves in with him.
His closing argument was a “desultory mess,” so bad that he lost the case.
Most of that is the desultory ticky-tacky kind that litters the right side of people's Facebook profiles.
Libya sank into civil war with NATO's desultory participation taking it toward stalemate, maybe even break-up.
A desultory conversation on politics, in which neither took the slightest interest, was a safe neutral ground.
In the lulls, Robert and his mother exchanged bits of desultory conversation.
The exchange, however, was still the field where a desultory fight was kept up by the shareholders.
And you will find I have a good deal of what you have, only mine in a perfectly desultory manner, as is necessary to 358 an exile.
Their desultory discourse was soon interrupted by their arrival at the cottage of Mr. Wharton.
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