desultory

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Then again, it’s all too easy to be distracted from the desultory happenings on stage.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 14, 2026

Last night he did an obscure X interview show and seemed desultory and depressed.

From Salon • Sep. 4, 2024

Once we got to the beach, we would start a desultory routine of sitting out on the sand in the morning, then waiting in line at fish camps in the evenings.

From Slate • Sep. 1, 2023

We can certainly imagine a version of “Oppenheimer” that tossed in a few startling but desultory minutes of Japanese destruction footage.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 11, 2023

She went into the bedroom, turned back her mattress and took from under it a notebook in which she had kept a desultory diary during her thirteenth year, and a square manila envelope.

From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith