'Desultory' definitions:
Definition of 'desultory'
(from WordNet)
adjective
Marked by lack of definite plan or regularity or purpose; jumping from one thing to another; "desultory thoughts"; "the desultory conversation characteristic of cocktail parties"
Definition of 'Desultory'
From: GCIDE
- Desultory \Des"ul*to*ry\, a. [L. desultorius, fr. desultor a leaper, fr. desilire, desultum, to leap down; de + salire to leap. See Saltation.]
- 1. Leaping or skipping about. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
- I shot at it [a bird], but it was so desultory that I missed my aim. --Gilbert White. [1913 Webster]
- 2. Jumping, or passing, from one thing or subject to another, without order or rational connection; without logical sequence; disconnected; immethodical; aimless; as, desultory minds. --Atterbury. [1913 Webster]
- He [Goldsmith] knew nothing accurately; his reading had been desultory. --Macaulay. [1913 Webster]
- 3. Out of course; by the way; as a digression; not connected with the subject; as, a desultory remark.
- Syn: Rambling; roving; immethodical; discursive; inconstant; unsettled; cursory; slight; hasty; loose. [1913 Webster]
Synonyms of 'desultory'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- aberrant,
- aberrative,
- adrift,
- afloat,
- aimless,
- alternating,
- amorphous,
- broken,
- by the way,
- capricious,
- careening,
- casual,
- catchy,
- changeable,
- changeful,
- chaotic,
- choppy,
- circuitous,
- dancing,
- dangerous,
- departing,
- designless,
- deviable,
- deviant,
- deviating,
- deviative,
- deviatory,
- devious,
- digressive,
- disarticulated,
- disconnected,
- discontinuous,
- discursive,
- disjunct,
- disordered,
- disorderly,
- disorganized,
- dispersed,
- disproportionate,
- dizzy,
- eccentric,
- episodic,
- errant,
- erratic,
- excursive,
- fast and loose,
- fickle,
- fitful,
- flickering,
- flickery,
- flicky,
- flighty,
- flitting,
- fluctuating,
- fluttering,
- fluttery,
- formless,
- freakish,
- frivolous,
- giddy,
- gratuitous,
- guttering,
- halting,
- haphazard,
- hazardous,
- herky-jerky,
- heteroclite,
- hit-or-miss,
- immethodical,
- impetuous,
- impulsive,
- inchoate,
- incoherent,
- inconsistent,
- inconstant,
- indecisive,
- indirect,
- indiscriminate,
- infirm,
- insecure,
- insubstantial,
- intermittent,
- intermitting,
- irregular,
- irresolute,
- irresponsible,
- jerky,
- labyrinthine,
- loose,
- lurching,
- maundering,
- mazy,
- meandering,
- meaningless,
- mercurial,
- misshapen,
- moody,
- nonsymmetrical,
- nonsystematic,
- nonuniform,
- on-again-off-again,
- orderless,
- out-of-the-way,
- patchy,
- perilous,
- planetary,
- planless,
- precarious,
- promiscuous,
- provisional,
- purposeless,
- rambling,
- random,
- restless,
- risky,
- rough,
- roving,
- scatterbrained,
- scrappy,
- senseless,
- serpentine,
- shaky,
- shapeless,
- shifting,
- shifty,
- shuffling,
- slippery,
- snaky,
- snatchy,
- spasmatic,
- spasmic,
- spasmodic,
- spastic,
- spineless,
- spluttering,
- sporadic,
- spotty,
- sputtering,
- sputtery,
- staggering,
- straggling,
- straggly,
- stray,
- swerving,
- systemless,
- temporary,
- tentative,
- ticklish,
- treacherous,
- turning,
- twisting,
- unaccountable,
- unarranged,
- uncertain,
- unclassified,
- unconsidered,
- uncontrolled,
- undependable,
- undirected,
- undisciplined,
- unequal,
- uneven,
- unfaithworthy,
- unfixed,
- ungraded,
- unjoined,
- unmethodical,
- unmetrical,
- unordered,
- unorganized,
- unplanned,
- unpredictable,
- unregular,
- unreliable,
- unrestrained,
- unrhythmical,
- unsettled,
- unsolid,
- unsorted,
- unsound,
- unstable,
- unstable as water,
- unstaid,
- unsteadfast,
- unsteady,
- unsubstantial,
- unsure,
- unsymmetrical,
- unsystematic,
- untrustworthy,
- ununiform,
- vacillating,
- vagrant,
- vague,
- variable,
- veering,
- vicissitudinary,
- vicissitudinous,
- volatile,
- wandering,
- wanton,
- wavering,
- wavery,
- wavy,
- wayward,
- whimsical,
- winding,
- wishy-washy,
- wobbling,
- wobbly,
- zigzag