Both Uses of
digress
in
1984 by Orwell
- "All this is a digression," he added in a different tone.
p. 266..7 *digression = not about the main topic
- But there were other days when they settled down to their work almost eagerly, making a tremendous show of entering up their minutes and drafting long memoranda which were never finished — when the argument as to what they were supposedly arguing about grew extraordinarily involved and abstruse, with subtle haggling over definitions, enormous digressions, quarrels threats, even, to appeal to higher authority.†
p. 294..9
Definition:
-
(digress) wander from a direct or straight course -- typically verbally