ISEE/SSAT Vocabulary BuilderWordsDdigress
ISEE/SSAThard
digress
Meaning: to stray from the main subject in speech or writing
digress in a sentence
How digress is used in real sentences:
The lecturer tended to digress into personal stories before returning to the lesson.
The witness kept digressing until the judge asked her to answer the actual question.
“It is tempting to digress into descriptions of feasts and costumes, but a jejune account that reduces the company to quaint entertainment misses its institutional creativity.”
— from the passage Beyond the Gates
“Yet Vane did not merely digress when he shifted from bridge repairs to widows' petitions; he was tracing how officials concealed favoritism inside routine business.”
— from the passage The Sealed County Papers
“I should not digress into every valve and cable we examined; the central finding was that a fortress built for permanence now required continual adjustment.”
— from the passage The Thawing Refuge
Synonyms for digress
Other words for digress — deviate, wander and ramble — carry the same meaning.
Antonyms of digress
Words that mean the opposite of digress:
- focus
- stick to the point
Where it comes from
From Latin digredi 'to step away, depart'
Word parts
- gress — movement
digress: di- (away) + gress (movement)
Memory hook
DI-GRESS sounds like 'de-tour-GRESS' — you take a detour away from the topic.