desultory• Curious, therefore, that the reception was so desultory.• It perfectly caught the air of feebleness which has characterised months of desultory chatter.• a desultory conversation• He answered a few questions in a desultory fashion, even, it seemed, a little grudgingly.• Conversation was desultory for we were all exhausted though Mandeville declared that tomorrow he would spread his net.• Yet sedimentation and disappearing marshes alone can not explain the thickening of the bay's waters and its desultory humours.• The peace of Utrecht ended the war proper in 1713, but desultory skirmishes carried on until 1714.• She greets us in a desultory way, nothing at all like her usual greeting.
Origindesultory
(1500-1600)Latindesultorius, from desilire“to jump down”