DIGRESSION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does digression mean? 

• DIGRESSION (noun)
  The noun DIGRESSION has 3 senses:

1. a message that departs from the main subject

2. a turning aside (of your course or attention or concern)

3. wandering from the main path of a journey

  Familiarity information: DIGRESSION used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DIGRESSION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A message that departs from the main subject

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

aside; digression; divagation; excursus; parenthesis

Hypernyms ("digression" is a kind of...):

content; message; subject matter; substance (what a communication that is about something is about)

Derivation:

digress (lose clarity or turn aside especially from the main subject of attention or course of argument in writing, thinking, or speaking)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A turning aside (of your course or attention or concern)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

deflection; deflexion; deviation; digression; divagation; diversion

Context example:

a deflection from his goal

Hypernyms ("digression" is a kind of...):

turn; turning (the act of changing or reversing the direction of the course)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "digression"):

red herring (any diversion intended to distract attention from the main issue)

Derivation:

digress (lose clarity or turn aside especially from the main subject of attention or course of argument in writing, thinking, or speaking)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Wandering from the main path of a journey

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

digression; excursion

Hypernyms ("digression" is a kind of...):

journey; journeying (the act of traveling from one place to another)

Derivation:

digress (wander from a direct or straight course)

 Context examples 

From this digression, let me proceed to Dover.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

And, “I really have not patience with the general,” was uttered twice after Mr. Allen left the room, without any relaxation of anger, or any material digression of thought.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

I think that the digression of my thoughts must have done me good, for when I got back to bed I found a lethargy creeping over me.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

After this digression he proceeded—I remained in the balcony.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

To return from this digression.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

In describing to her all the grandeur of Lady Catherine and her mansion, with occasional digressions in praise of his own humble abode, and the improvements it was receiving, he was happily employed until the gentlemen joined them; and he found in Mrs. Phillips a very attentive listener, whose opinion of his consequence increased with what she heard, and who was resolving to retail it all among her neighbours as soon as she could.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

To return from this digression.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

This is a digression.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Inquiries and communications concerning brothers and sisters, the situation of some, the growth of the rest, and other family matters now passed between them, and continued, with only one small digression on James's part, in praise of Miss Thorpe, till they reached Pulteney Street, where he was welcomed with great kindness by Mr. and Mrs. Allen, invited by the former to dine with them, and summoned by the latter to guess the price and weigh the merits of a new muff and tippet.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)