to deviate or wander away from the main topic or purpose in speaking or writing; depart from the principal line of argument, plot, study, etc.
2.
Archaic. to turn aside.
Origin
1520-30; < Latindīgressus, past participle of dīgredī to go off, depart, digress, equivalent to dī-di-2 + -gredī, combining form of gradī to go; cf. grade
But they have allowed society to progress (or digress, based on your perspective) to where we are today.
Let me digress one further moment.
But we cannot digress in that direction.
But we digress from the entertaining mudslinging at hand.
After having tutored and worked with many students in math over the years I have to digress from the results of this study.
Sorry, the sounds make us digress.
Now let me digress a bit.
She turns down no opportunity to digress.
I'm going to have to digress a little to answer you.
We digress here momentarily to emphasize the data-adaptive nature of the basis into which the time series is decomposed.
British Dictionary definitions for digress
digress
/daɪˈɡrɛs/
verb (intransitive)
1.
to depart from the main subject in speech or writing
2.
to wander from one's path or main direction
Derived Forms
digresser, noun
Word Origin
C16: from Latin dīgressus turned aside, from dīgredī, from dis- apart + gradī to go
Word Origin and History for digress
v.
1520s, from Latin digressus, past participle of digredi "to go aside, depart" (see digression), or perhaps a back-formation from digression. Related: Digressed; digressing.