digress
/dʌɪˈɡrɛs
/verb [no object]
Leave the main subject temporarily in speech or writing: I have digressed a little from my original plan...
- However, I am digressing from the main point that I am trying to put across in this letter, which is the attitude of most Namibians when it comes to criticism.
- I know I digressed from the subject of the article.
- They loved him even more when he digressed from his prepared speech to intervene in domestic British politics.
Synonyms
deviate, go off at a tangent, diverge, turn aside, turn away, depart, drift, stray, ramble, wander, meander, maunder;
get off the subject, stray from the subject, stray from the point, deviate from the topic, get sidetracked, lose the thread
rare divagate
Derivatives
digresser
- As it was not seen as an ethical stand or a virtue, there were few digressers from its path.
- Plus, I'm a rambler and digresser even if there isn't much to say.
- He is also a world-champion digresser, sending out long skeins of words, which bend back and dissolve into the previous ones.
Origin
Early 16th century: from Latin digress- 'stepped away', from the verb digredi, from di- 'aside' + gradi 'to walk'.