Divagate

verb

verb ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To wander about. intransitive
  2. 2
    lose clarity or turn aside especially from the main subject of attention or course of argument in writing, thinking, or speaking wordnet
  3. 3
    To stray from a subject or theme. intransitive

    "The fallen guillotine blade is replaced with a call to awareness that, as we have seen, divagates from Szpiner's "Ayez pitié des enfants.""

Synonyms

All synonyms
digressangleangle offbat aroundbe absentbear off

Example

More examples

"The fallen guillotine blade is replaced with a call to awareness that, as we have seen, divagates from Szpiner's "Ayez pitié des enfants.""

Etymology

First attested in 1599; borrowed from Latin dīvagātus, perfect active participle of dīvagor (“to wander here and there”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from Latin dis- (“in different direction”) + vagor (“to wander”). Cognate with French divaguer.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.