Meanings
comparative more discursorily · superlative most discursorily
- In a discursory manner.
Sir Rupert had no gift for writing; indeed, he rambles most discursorily, and is as great a vagabond with his pen as he seems to have been in his life.
1903, H[enry] B[rereton] Marriott Watson, Alarums and Excursions, page 12 more examples
HAVING, in the preceding pages, discursorily looked to the works of some of the early Fathers, with the particular view of informing myself, whether they furnish any “Evidence” as to the order in which the Gospels were written, and having noticed the mal-version of Lardner in several instances, — I take this opportunity just to consider a still earlier document, which appears to me not to have been fully understood, from the inadequate translation commonly given of it.
1806, [Charles Dunster], Discursory Considerations on the Supposed Evidence of the Early Fathers, That St. Matthew’s Gospel Was the First Written, London: […] J. Nichols and Son, […] T. Payne, […]; and Nornaville and Fell […], page 73But John Randolph, always happy in his element of universal opposition, battled against the men of his own section in his peculiar way, sometimes with ability, always discursorily, and frequently with the keenest satire.
1869, Benson J[ohn] Lossing, chapter XI, in The Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812; or, Illustrations, by Pen and Pencil, of the History, Biography, Scenery, Relics, and Traditions of the Last War for American Independence, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], page 214
Origin
Cite this entry
discursorily. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/discursorily
“discursorily.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/discursorily. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “discursorily,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/discursorily.
Source: discursorily on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.