excursionize (ekskershoniz)

i.; pret. and pp. excursionized, ppr. excursionizing. [ 2060 wandering. Johnson. Hence-2. Veering from point to point; wandering off from a subject; deviating; desultory; erratic: as, an excursive fancy or imagination. He (William IV.] made another speech in French, in the course of which he travelled over every variety of topic that suggested itself to his excursive mind. Greville, Memoirs, Sept. 17, 1831. excursively (eks-ker's iv-li), adv. In an excursive manner. up. The flesh of animals which feed excursively is allowed to have a higher flavour than that of those who are cooped Boswell , Johnson. excursivene (eks-kėr's iv-nes), n . The quality of being excursive; a disposition to ramble or deviate. Remember that your excursivene (allow me the word; I had a rasher in my head) upon old maids and your lord can only please yourself. Richardson , Sir Charles Grand is on, V. 313. Excursores (eks-kėr-sō'rēz), n . pl . [NL., pl. of L. excursor , a runner, skirmisher, scout, excur rere, pp. excursus , run out: see excur .] In Macgillivray's system of cla ification, an order of birds, the snatchers, comprising sundry birds which secure their prey as do the shrikes and flycatchers, which sally forth to snatch it and return to their post after such an excursion. [Not in use.] excursus (eks-kėr's us), n.; pl. excursus or excur suses (-sus, -ez). [ L.excursus , a sally, inroad, excursion, digre ion, excurrere , run out: see excur.] 1. A digre ion; an excursion. Catechising concerning articles of export and import, with an occasional excursus of more indirect utility. George Eliot , Mill on the Flo , I. 211. Returning, now, from the excursus upon the topic of command of language, let us pa to consider a fourth cause of the formation of a loose style. A. Phelps, Eng. Style, p. 107. 2. A di ertation inserted in a work, as an edition of a cla ic, to elucidate some obscure or important point of the text. The principal point to be noticed in the excursuses is that a suggestion is made which carries the theory of a Judeo-Christian origin of the Teaching further than it has yet been pushed. Amer. Jour. Philol ., VI. 103. IMG:content-0876.png:[blocks in formation] Ye shall not with stond nor disobaey the somnes of the Master and Wardens for the tyme beyng, but there-to be obedyent at al tymys, with owt res on a bell excusacion . English Gilds (E. E. T. S.), p. 317. Prefaces, and pa ages, and excusations, and other speeches of reference to the person, are great wastes of time. Bacon , Dispatch (ed. 1887).