The Collaborative International Dictionary
Discursive \Dis*cur"sive\, a. [Cf. F. discursif. See Discourse, and cf. Discoursive.]
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Passing from one thing to another; ranging over a wide field; roving; digressive; desultory. ``Discursive notices.''
--De Quincey.The power he [Shakespeare] delights to show is not intense, but discursive.
--Hazlitt.A man rather tacit than discursive.
--Carlyle. -
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.
Wiktionary
adv. In a discursive manner.
WordNet
adv. in a rambling manner [syn: ramblingly]
Usage examples of "discursively".
Faucelme spoke discursively as he ate from this or that plate with prim little nips: ".
His early life in Missouri, his rambling experiences in mining, steamboat piloting, and newspaper work, his first book-success with "Innocents Abroad," the long list of romances, stories, and sketches that followed, together with later eventful incidents, notable among which was the bestowal of his doctor's degree at Oxford three years ago -- all this is familiar to most Americans, and much of the story has been told discursively and oddly in Mark Twain's own purposely inconsecutive autobiographical papers.
He must allow her to ramble on discursively in defiance of every rule of law and evidence in answer to the simplest question.