Descant vs Expatiate - What's the difference?
descant | expatiate |
A lengthy discourse on a subject
* De Quincey
(music) a counterpoint melody sung or played above the theme
To discuss at length.
*{{quote-book, year=1913, author=
, title=Lord Stranleigh Abroad
, chapter=4 To sing or play a descant.
To range at large, or without restraint.
* Alexander Pope
To write or speak at length; to be copious in argument or discussion, to descant.
*1851 ,
* Addison
* 2007 , Clive James, Cultural Amnesia (Picador 2007, p. 847)
*:“It can't fly,” he expatiated . “It can move forward only by hopping.”
(obsolete) To expand; to spread; to extend; to diffuse; to broaden.
As verbs the difference between descant and expatiate
is that descant is to discuss at length while expatiate is to range at large, or without restraint.As a noun descant
is a lengthy discourse on a subject.descant
English
Noun
(en noun)- Upon that simplest of themes how magnificent a descant !
Verb
(en verb)citation, passage=“… This is a surprise attack, and I’d no wish that the garrison, forewarned, should escape. I am sure, Lord Stranleigh, that he has been descanting on the distraction of the woods and the camp, or perhaps the metropolitan dissipation of Philadelphia, …”}}
Quotations
* 1919, , Duckworth, hardback edition, page 121 *: Involving some interesting, intellectual trips, she was descanting lightly to right and left.Anagrams
*expatiate
English
Verb
(expatiat)- Bids his free soul expatiate in the skies.
- Now, as the business of standing mast-heads, ashore or afloat, is a very ancient and interesting one, let us in some measure expatiate here.
- He expatiated on the inconveniences of trade.
