digress

“The Madman’s Guide” has no chapter headings but many signposts such as “to digress further” and “at last to return to.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026

There are less rules outside, fewer boundaries: coffee dates prolong, walks meander, thoughts digress.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 13, 2026

I digress, though: This is a column about what is popular, not what is right and wrong!

From Slate ● Jun. 24, 2025

That may be going a bit too far, but I digress.

From Salon ● Feb. 19, 2024

Since a Suggestion from the Master is a Command not unlike Holy Writ, I shall digress and comply at the same Time.

From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck

Its narrative offers few character sketches, jumps around in time and digresses into subjects that distract more than they enlighten.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026

He digresses to tell me the story, however, and it’s literally longer than this entire article’s word count.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 13, 2026

“A Sort of Homecoming” also digresses, pointlessly, with attempts at comedy recalling Letterman’s “Late Show” shticks.

From New York Times ● Mar. 17, 2023

It idles, it digresses, it repeats, it makes no progress.

From Slate ● May 3, 2018

The Apostle digresses a little from his immediate theme.

From Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians by Theodore Graebner

And during a meeting in early January with oil and gas executives that was supposed to be about rebuilding Venezuela’s oil industry, Trump apparently digressed yet again into talking about the ballroom.

From Slate ● Apr. 30, 2026

The audience of 1,600-plus, all primed to cheer the speakers’ adversarial views, found less and less to react to as the panel digressed.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2023

Answering a question about her use of color, she digressed into an anecdote about Seurat and Monet: “When Seurat was asked what he thought of Monet, he said one word: ‘Intuition.’

From New York Times ● Mar. 17, 2022

"I am not a Bravo executive, so I don’t think I can speak to this on," she digressed.

From Fox News ● Oct. 14, 2021

But let us return to the point we digressed from.

From "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli

Elliptical, digressing, self-interrupting, parenthesizing, Herzen wrote as he spoke, in a torrent of ideas, reminiscences, and literary and historical allusions.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026

But then Will spoils the effect by digressing into a jarring non sequitur:

From Salon ● Dec. 20, 2025

This was a comfortable spot for him, though he seemed, in a faded red T-shirt with a few holes in the torso, not entirely comfortable there, apologizing often for rambling, pausing, digressing.

From New York Times ● Oct. 5, 2022

But when I read it, I realized all the things I thought were my flaws — the digressing, the self-contradiction — in Bernhard that was the writing.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 27, 2022

However, we are digressing from Lledrod Davies, who it seems had intended to enter the Church, but died before he could be ordained.

From Stranger Than Fiction Being Tales from the Byways of Ghosts and Folk-lore by Mary L. Lewes