Sample Sentences for
tangent
(editor-reviewed)

tangent as in:  off-topic on a tangent

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    It is difficult to keep her from going off on a tangent.
    tangent = off-topic change
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    An outline helps a speaker avoid leaving things out and going off on tangents.
    tangents = off-topic changes
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    There the text went off on a tangent about how Bram Stoker had actually been...  (source)
    tangent = a different subject from the main thing being discussed
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    ... "And anyway," Delia continued, ignoring this tangent, "they have strict rules about service vehicles up here by the garden."  (source)
    tangent = something that touched the current issue, but with minor or no relevance
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    He could feel them in his hands again while overhead the gulls flew tangents.†  (source)
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    "There are several tangential possibilities," Piter said.†  (source)
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    Tangentially†  (source)
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    Rod considered wriggling around behind the gate, knowing that the tangency was one-sided and that he would be able to see through the locus from the other side, see anyone who came out without himself being seen.†  (source)
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    They weren't really stories at all, just one tangent after another.†  (source)
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    He'll go off on his little tangents, but he's never come to me with a real gripe or a complaint.†  (source)
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    They lingered in this state of tangential connection as winter gave way to spring—though seasons in Marin seemed sometimes to last only for a small portion of a day, to change in the time that one took off one's jacket or put on one's sweater—and they lingered still in this state as a warm spring gave way to a cool summer.†  (source)
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    Even, like, tangentially.†  (source)
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    No, I mean, this is a tangent, but my problem with paper is that all communication dies with it.†  (source)
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meaning too rare to warrant focus

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It wandered along in curves and easy angles, swayed off and up in a pleasant tangent to the top of a small hill, ambled down again between fringes of beehung clover, and then cut sidewise across a meadow.  (source)
tangent = in a non-direct way
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