DIGRESSION • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Digression

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/daɪgrˈɛʃən/ Listen

noun

Digression n.

The act of digressing or deviating, esp. from the main subject of a discourse; hence, a part of a discourse deviating from its main design or subject. "The digressions I can not excuse otherwise, than by the confidence that no man will read them."

A turning aside from the right path; transgression; offense. (R.) "Then my digression is so vile, so base, That it will live engraven in my face."

(Anat.) The elongation, or angular distance from the sun; said chiefly of the inferior planets. (R.)

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Etymology of 'Digression'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Digression" Quotes from Famous Books

... But this digression of thought was but superficial, and the sense that something serious underlaid it remained always latent. The professor leaned back in his chair, and sighed again heavily. It was true that he was growing old, and now that he contemplated action, he felt that in the last nine ...

— Bressant • Julian Hawthorne

... the street, flooded the cellars of the village, and hissed upon our kitchen hearth. I give the history of the great whale that was landed on Whale Beach, and whose jaws, being now my gateway, will last for ages after my coffin shall have passed beneath them. Thence it is an easy digression to the halibut, scarcely smaller than the whale, which ran out six cod-lines, and hauled my dory to the mouth of Boston Harbor, before I could touch him ...

— The Village Uncle (From "Twice Told Tales") • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... digression of the last chapter I was recalled by the sight of the two letters which lay during my reverie unopened before me. I first broke the seal of Lady ...

— The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer, Complete • Charles James Lever (1806-1872)

... that God loves either in man or woman. She hated sycophants and dissemblers. I hate them; and more than ever at this moment on her behalf. I wish she were but here—to give a punch on the head to that fellow who traduces her. And, coming round again to the occasion from which this short digression has started, viz., the question raised by the Frenchman—whether Kate were a person likely to pray under other circumstances than those of extreme danger? I offer it as my opinion that she was. Violent people are not always such from choice, but ...

— Narrative And Miscellaneous Papers • Thomas De Quincey

... profound belief that his failure in another line is owing to the malignity of the world at large. In one of his most characteristic Essays he asks whether genius is conscious of its powers. He writes what he declares to be a digression about his own experience, and we may believe as much as we please of his assertion that he does not quote himself as an example of genius. He has spoken, he declares, with freedom and power, and will not cease because ...

— Hours in a Library - New Edition, with Additions. Vol. II (of 3) • Leslie Stephen

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