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Definition of discursive :
1. ( of e. g. speech and writing) tending to depart from the main point or cover a wide range of subjects; " amusingly digressive with satirical thrusts at women's fashions among other things"; " a rambling discursive book"; " his excursive remarks"; " a rambling speech about this and that"
2. Passing from one thing to another; ranging over a wide field; roving; digressive; desultory.
3. Reasoning; proceeding from one ground to another, as in reasoning; argumentative.
Synonyms:
winding, desultory, straggling, economical, tangential, indirect, leaping, articulate, sprawling, parenthetical, digressional, excursive, maundering, meandering, approach, conversational, dianoetic, parenthetic, rambling, circuitous, digressive, clean, logical, digressionary, wandering, straggly, crisp, declamatory, chatty, verbose, diffuse
Usage examples:
- One is to mortify the body and suppress not only appetite and passion but also discursive thought: the other is to keep the body in perfect health and ease, so that the intelligence and ultimately the soul may be untroubled by physical influences. - "Hinduism and Buddhism, Vol I. (of 3) An Historical Sketch", Charles Eliot.
- Closely and yet lightly written, full of facts yet as amusing as a bit of discursive talk, penetrating, candid and very shrewd, this study would be hard to beat in English, or, for that matter, in French. - "Promenades of an Impressionist", James Huneker.
- The English courts now claim no such power, although Sir Edward Coke, in one of his discursive opinions, very little of which was necessary for the determination of the cause, asserted that an act of Parliament " against common right and reason" could be adjudged void at common law. - "The American Judiciary", Simeon E. Baldwin, LLD.