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One of the earliest uses of the phrase "but I digress" appeared in 1653 in what kind of document?

digress

[dih-gres, dahy-] / dɪˈgrɛs, daɪ- /


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.

See Examples For:

“The Madman’s Guide” has no chapter headings but many signposts such as “to digress further” and “at last to return to.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026

But I digress . . . and I do not want to leave you without these last words.

From Salon ● May 23, 2024

If we really want to talk about moral failings, perhaps we should ask predatory lenders to join the chat—but I digress.

From Slate ● Mar. 28, 2024

Not as good the next day when the 49ers got Young, a better player, for only a third-rounder, but we digress.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 3, 2023

But though I can digress with the best of them, I am nothing in my soul if not obsessive.

From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt

Its narrative offers few character sketches, jumps around in time and digresses into subjects that distract more than they enlighten.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026

He digresses to tell me the story, however, and it’s literally longer than this entire article’s word count.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 13, 2026

In one letter, he digresses to say he took a break from writing to eat a quart of ice cream.

From New York Times ● May 28, 2018

It idles, it digresses, it repeats, it makes no progress.

From Slate ● May 3, 2018

He then digresses into an apostrophe, O dignity, how dost thou impose upon the world! then returning to himself, Blood, says he, thou art but blood, however concealed with appearances and decorations.

From Notes to Shakespeare — Volume 01: Comedies by Samuel Johnson

And during a meeting in early January with oil and gas executives that was supposed to be about rebuilding Venezuela’s oil industry, Trump apparently digressed yet again into talking about the ballroom.

From Slate ● Apr. 30, 2026

"I am not a Bravo executive, so I don’t think I can speak to this on," she digressed.

From Fox News ● Oct. 14, 2021

Then he awoke and picked up where he had left off: “Some people said that he digressed into further emblems which represented entourages to our activities.”

From The New Yorker ● Mar. 4, 2019

A year later, with four games remaining, the Rams’ offense is basically in the same spot — but with a running game that has digressed from 2015.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 7, 2016

But let us return to the point we digressed from.

From "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli

Elliptical, digressing, self-interrupting, parenthesizing, Herzen wrote as he spoke, in a torrent of ideas, reminiscences, and literary and historical allusions.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026

This was a comfortable spot for him, though he seemed, in a faded red T-shirt with a few holes in the torso, not entirely comfortable there, apologizing often for rambling, pausing, digressing.

From New York Times ● Oct. 5, 2022

But when I read it, I realized all the things I thought were my flaws — the digressing, the self-contradiction — in Bernhard that was the writing.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 27, 2022

“I know people want the branches of government to work together, rather than digressing into politics.”

From Washington Post ● Jan. 17, 2017

But it would be digressing beyond a proper boundary, to go minutely into this subject here.

From An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae A Disease Discovered in Some of the Western Counties of England, Particularly Gloucestershire, and Known by the Name of the Cow Pox by Edward Jenner




Vocabulary lists containing digress


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