Dictionary entry

Discursive

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Dis‐cur″sive (?), a. [Cf. F. discursif. See Discourse, and cf. Discoursive.] 1. Passing from one thing to another; ranging over a wide field; roving; digressive; desultory. “Discursive notices.” De Quincey.

The power he delights to show is not intense, but discursive. Hazlitt.

A man rather tacit than discursive. Carlyle.

2. Reasoning; proceeding from one ground to another, as in reasoning; argumentative.

Reason is her being,

Discursive or intuitive. Milton.

— Dis‐cur″sive‐ly, adv. — Dis‐cur″sive‐ness, n.