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Middlemarch vocabulary
551 vocabulary words, including people, places, music, artists, etc.
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desultory
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► definition
Definition:inconsistent; fitful digressing from the main purpose or goal; aimless
► uses
Uses:
The first westerners to stumble across the islands of Kiribati were Spanish mutineers. They murdered their captain, Hernando de Grijalva, in 1537 after months of desultory sailing across the vast, seemingly boundless Pacific ocean.
J. Maarten Troost. The Sex Lives of Cannibals, p.109 (2004)
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the desultory warm afternoon breeze vibrated delicately on the surface of the beach.
Joseph Heller. Catch-22, p.337 (1961)
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She opened the windows, made him take off his shirt, and they lay side by side in bed talking, desultory talking,
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Americanah, p.524 (2013)
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There was the sound of a single engine in the sky in the distance and desultory anti-aircraft fire, as the guns chased the last German flight before dawn back across the lines.
Irwin Shaw. The Young Lions, p.484 (1948)
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The Devil's Dictionary was begun in a weekly paper in 1881, and was continued in a desultory way at long intervals until 1906.
Ambrose Bierce. The Devil's Dictionary (intro).
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They talked desultorily for some minutes, then, without apparent reason, a yell from the telescreen bade them be silent.
George Orwell. 1984 (1949)
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They had gone two or three miles in the moonlight, speaking desultorily across the wheel of her gig
Thomas Hardy. Far from the Madding Crowd (1874)
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I welcomed its desultory character
Vladimir Nabokov. Lolita
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