di·gres·sion
| \ dī-ˈgre-shən
, də- \
, də- \
Definition of digression
1
: the act or an instance of leaving the main subject in an extended written or verbal expression of thought : the act or an instance of digressing in a discourse or other usually organized literary work
Every place Hamilton, his parents, or his wife visited over a century's time is described at length; everyone he met merits at least a minor biographical digression.— Willard Sterne Randall
2
archaic
: a going aside
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Other Words from digression
digressional
\
dī-ˈgresh-nəl
, də- , -ə-nᵊl
\
adjective
, də- , -ə-nᵊl
\
adjective
digressionary
\
dī-ˈgre-shə-ˌner-ē
, də-
\
adjective
, də-
\
adjective
Examples of digression in a Sentence
the professor's frequent and extended digressions are the stuff of campus legend
Recent Examples on the Web
And yet, for me, the blockchain is best used for building trust and accountability between machines, whereas the entire cryptocurrency market is merely a digression.
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Aaron Pressman, Fortune, "The drone future flies even closer," 26 Apr. 2021
There are times when the Kelley story seems a digression, but then again there were historical digressions aplenty in that era.
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BostonGlobe.com, "Learning from the tumultuous politics of another century in ‘The Age of Acrimony’," 22 Apr. 2021
Oh, digression, but Universal just moved The Forever Purge up a week to July 2, continuing the series’ existence as our most ironic/appropriate Independence Day franchise.
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Scott Mendelson, Forbes, "Tom Cruise’s ‘Mission: Impossible 7’ To Open Against Keanu Reeves’ ‘John Wick 4’," 9 Apr. 2021
And both exclusions are inseparable from the system’s tacit formal exclusions—the efficiency of storytelling, the suppression of digression and disruption, on which that classic style was composed.
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Richard Brody, The New Yorker, "How to Think About Classic Hollywood’s “Problematic” Movies," 11 Mar. 2021
Eliminate, mercilessly, every word, bit, digression, or embellishment that is not absolutely necessary to communicate or reinforce your message.
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Mark Nevins, Forbes, "Stop Presenting Remotely … Without The Remotest Chance Of Impact!," 1 Mar. 2021
In his idiosyncratic works — Austerlitz, Rings of Saturn, The Emigrants — single sentences can roll on for pages at a time, one digression folding into another, then only to double-back on themselves.
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Mark Lamster, Dallas News, "Architecture critic Mark Lamster: Sorry, Dallas, but boring works here," 29 Jan. 2021
The other axis is a chain of observations, each a digression from the last, about Leiris’s neighborhood.
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Sasha Frere-jones, The New Yorker, "The Man Who Saw Through Himself," 9 Dec. 2020
That does lead into a nice digression about Jane Lynch being ubiquitous on TV.
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Andy Hoglund, EW.com, "Saturday Night Live recap: John Mulaney returns for Halloween episode with musical guest the Strokes," 1 Nov. 2020
See MoreThese example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'digression.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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Last Updated
8 May 2021
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Cite this Entry
“Digression.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/digression. Accessed 9 May. 2021.
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Time Traveler for digression
The first known use of digression was in the 14th century
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