digression
(dɪˈgrɛʃən, daɪ-)
Also 5–7 dis-, 5–8 de-.
[a. OF. disgressiun, digressiun (12th c.), mod.F. digression, ad. L. dīgressiōn-em, n. of action from dīgredī: see digress v.]
1. The action of digressing, or turning aside from a path or track; swerving, deviation. (Now somewhat rare in lit. sense.)
| 1552 Huloet, Digression, digressio. 1670 Cotton Espernon i. iv. 144 By this little digression into Gascony, the Duke had an opportunity..to re-inforce himself with some particular Servants of his. 1673 Ray Journ. Low C. Rome 379 We made a digression to S. Marino. 1823 J. D. Hunter Captiv. N. Amer. 86 This digression up the Kansas was undertaken [etc.]. |
† b. fig. Moral deviation or going astray. Obs.
| 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. i. xxi, Nature..More stronger had her operacion Then she had nowe in her digression. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. i. ii. 121, I may example my digression by some mighty president. 1593 ― Lucr. 202 Then my digression is so vile, so base, That it will liue engrauen in my face. |
† c. Deviation from rule. Obs.
| 1615 Crooke Body of Man 299 Monsters Aristotle calleth Excursions and Digressions of Nature. |
2. Departure or deviation from the subject in discourse or writing; an instance of this. (The earliest and most frequent sense.)
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus i. 87 (143) It were a long disgression Fro my matere. 1430 Lydg. Chron. Troy i. i, I wyll no longer make disgression. 1494 Fabyan Chron. iv. lxix. 49, I woll retourne my style to Octauis, from whom I haue made a longe degression. a 1535 More De quat. Noviss. Wks. 99 Which thyng I might proue..sauing that the degression would be ouer long. 1621 Three Quest. Answ. conc. Fourth Commandm. 6 But this, by way of disgression. 1675 Essex Papers (Camden) I. 206, I begg y{supr} Excellencies pardon for this degression. 1751 Johnson Rambler No. 147 ¶7 Without..any power of starting into gay digressions. 1813 Scott Rokeby i. x, [He] started from the theme, to range In loose digression wild and strange. 1863 Mrs. Oliphant Salem Ch. xiii, Breaking off now and then into a momentary digression. |
3. Astron. and Physics. Deviation from a particular line, or from the mean position; deflexion; e.g. of the sun from the equator, or of an inferior planet from the sun (= elongation 1).
| 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. vi. iv. 288 This digression [of the Sun] is not equall, but neare the æquinoxiall intersections, it is right and greater, near the Solstices, more oblique and lesser. 1705 C. Purshall Mech. Macrocosm 122 Their Degression, or Departure North, and South, are sometimes Greater, and sometimes Less, than that of the Sun. 1726 tr. Gregory's Astron. I. 116 These lesser Bodies may be lessen'd till that digression or those mutual attractions be less than any given ones. 1837 Brewster Magnet. 215 The needle having arrived at the limit of its western digression. 1847 Craig, Digression, in Astronomy, the apparent distance of the inferior planets, Mercury and Venus, from the sun. |