▪ I. digress, v.
(dɪˈgrɛs, daɪ-)
Also 6–7 disgress.
[f. L. dīgress- ppl. stem of dīgredī to go aside, depart, f. di-, dis- 1 + gradī to step, walk, go.]
1. intr. To go aside or depart from the course or track; to diverge, deviate, swerve.
| 1552 Huloet, Digresse or go a little out of the pathe, digredior. 1582 N. Lichefield tr. Castanheda Conq. E. Ind. 65 b, It was not vnpossible but that they might somewhat digresse from their right course. 1603 Dekker Grissil (Shaks. Soc.) 22, I must disgress from this bias, and leave you. 1649 Alcoran 86 God..punisheth them that digresse from the right path. 1750 Johnson Rambler No. 25 ¶11 Frighted from digressing into new tracts of learning. 1825 Lamb Elia Ser. ii. Superannuated man, I find myself in Bond Street..I digress into Soho, to explore a bookstall. |
† b. Astron. Cf. digression 3. Obs.
| 1601 Holland Pliny I. 12 Shee (Venus) beginnes to digresse in latitude and to diminish her motion from the morn rising: but to be retrograde, and withall to digresse in altitude from the euening station. |
† 2. fig. To depart or deviate (from a course, mode of action, rule, standard, etc.); to diverge. Obs.
| 1571 Golding Calvin on Ps. lxxi. 16 As the other translation agreeth very well, I would not digresse from it. 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. iii. 127 Thy Noble shape, is but a forme of waxe, Digressing from the Valour of a man. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 25 Digresse good sir from such lewd songs. 1611 Ussher in Gutch Coll. Cur. I. 39 The subjects rebelled, and digressed from their allegiance. |
† 3. To diverge from the right path, to transgress. Obs.
| 1541–93 [see digressing below]. 1640 G. Watts tr. Bacon's Adv. Learn. vii. iii. (R.), So man, while he aspired to be like God in knowledge, digressed and fell. |
† b. trans. To transgress. Obs.
| 1592 W. Wyrley Armorie 56 Faire points of honor I would not disgresse. |
4. intr. To deviate from the subject in discourse or writing. (Now the most frequent sense.)
| 1530 Palsgr. 516/1, I dygresse from my mater and talke of a thyng that nothynge belongeth therunto. 1555 Eden Decades 8 To returne to the matter from which we haue digressed. 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. 74 Let vs come againe to our example from which wee haue much disgressed. 1682 Burnet Rights Princes viii. 292, I shall not digress to give any account of these. 1727 Swift Modest Proposal, I have too long digressed, and therefore shall return to my subject. 1752 Johnson Rambler No. 200 ¶10 While we were conversing upon such subjects..he frequently digressed into directions to the servant. 1813 W. Taylor in Ann. Rev. I. 374 Mr. P. digresses on the subject of parliamentary reform. 1869 Farrar Fam. Speech iii. (1873) 99, I will not here digress into the interesting question as to the origin of writing. |
Hence diˈgressing vbl. n. and ppl. a., diˈgressingly adv.
| 1529 More Comf. agst. Trib. ii. Wks. 1200/1 Were it properly perteining to y⊇ present matter, or sumwhat disgressing therfro. 1541 Act 33 Hen. VIII in Bolton Stat. Irel. (1621) 218 Albeit that upon any disloyaltie or disgressing contrary to the duety of a subject. 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, v. iii. 66 This deadly blot, in thy digressing sonne. 1864 Q. Rev. CXVI. 168 The sarcophagus on which appears the incident we have thus digressingly analysed. |
▪ II. † digress, n. Obs.
[ad. L. dīgress-us departure, f. ppl. stem of dīgredī: see digress v.]
= digression 2.
| 1598 Yong Diana 76, I thee espie Talking with other Shepherdesses, All is of feastes and brauerie, Who daunceth best, and like digresses. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. xi. x. §43 Nor let any censure this a digress from my history. 1679 Harby Key Script. i. 9, I am driven..here..to a brief Digress. |