desultory
adjective
Herman Wouk
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The Latin adjective desultorius was used by the ancients to refer to a circus performer (called a desultor) whose trick was to leap from horse to horse without stopping. It makes sense, then, that someone or something desultory "jumps" from one thing to another. (Desultor and desultorius, by the way, come from the Latin verb salire, meaning "to leap.") A desultory conversation leaps from one topic to another and doesn't have a distinct point or direction. A desultory student skips from one subject to another without applying serious effort to any particular one. A desultory comment is a digressive one that jumps away from the topic at hand. And a desultory performance is one resulting from an implied lack of steady, focused effort.
Synonyms
Examples of desultory in a Sentence
Thomas Meaney, Harper's Magazine, 26 Apr. 2024
After a period of reckoning, Bonnard married Marthe in a desultory civil ceremony in 1925.
—Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 27 Mar. 2024
Others disappeared almost without notice, their one big shot on the launching pad that SNL has become over the decades fizzling out in a nondescript series of tiny roles and desultory goodnight waves from home base at Rockefeller Center.
—Dennis Perkins, EW.com, 14 Dec. 2023
That is not the case with the men’s basketball team, which has had a desultory season, anchored in last place in the Ivy League.
—Billy Witz, New York Times, 5 Mar. 2024
The negotiations between Ukrainian and Russian officials are moving at a desultory pace.
—Janice Gross Stein, Foreign Affairs, 9 Mar. 2022
Endings are never easy, but this was an especially rough one, a desultory loss at home to the miserable Jets, in the snow, the 71-year-old head coach fighting a cold, a tight balaclava covering nearly all of his face.
—Jason Gay, WSJ, 11 Jan. 2024
A little later, Billy circle backs to Joe’s desultory flat, which is full of Billy Mack memorabilia.
—Stephen Rodrick, Variety, 21 Nov. 2023
What might have been an unexpected Lennon-McCartney triumph had ended in an amateurish, desultory jam.
—Jordan Runtagh, Peoplemag, 31 Oct. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'desultory.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near desultory
Cite this Entry
“Desultory.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/desultory. Accessed 3 Jun. 2024.
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desultory
adjective
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