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Digress vs Amiss - What's the difference?

digress | amiss |

As a verb digress

is to step or turn aside; to deviate; to swerve; especially, to turn aside from the main subject of attention, or course of argument, in writing or speaking.

As an adjective amiss is

wrong; faulty; out of order; improper; as, it may not be amiss to ask advice.

As an adverb amiss is

(archaic) mistakenly.

As a noun amiss is

(obsolete) fault; wrong; an evil act, a bad deed.

digress

English

Verb

(es)
  • To step or turn aside; to deviate; to swerve; especially, to turn aside from the main subject of attention, or course of argument, in writing or speaking.
  • * Holland
    • Moreover she beginneth to digress in latitude.
  • * John Locke
    • In the pursuit of an argument there is hardly room to digress into a particular definition as often as a man varies the signification of any term.
  • * {{quote-song
    • , year = 1959 , title = In Old Mexico , composer = (Tom Lehrer) , passage = For I hadn't had so much fun since the day / my brother's dog Rover / got run over. / (Rover was killed by a Pontiac. And it was done with such grace and artistry that the witnesses awarded the driver both ears and the tail – but I digress .) }}
  • To turn aside from the right path; to transgress; to offend.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Thy abundant goodness shall excuse / This deadly blot on thy digressing son.

    Synonyms

    * (turn from the course of argument) sidetrack

    Related terms

    * digression * digressive * excursive

    amiss

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Wrong; faulty; out of order; improper; as, it may not be amiss to ask advice.
    • He suspected something was amiss .
    Something amiss in the arrangements had distracted the staff.
  • * Wollaston
    • His wisdom and virtue cannot always rectify that which is amiss in himself or his circumstances.

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (archaic) Mistakenly
  • (archaic) Astray
  • (archaic) Wrongly.

    • Noun

    (amisses)
  • (obsolete) Fault; wrong; an evil act, a bad deed.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.i:
    • Now by my head (said Guyon) much I muse, / How that same knight should do so foule amis [...].
  • * 1635 , John Donne, "His parting from her":
    • Yet Love, thou'rt blinder then thy self in this, / To vex my Dove-like friend for my amiss [...].

    External links

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    Anagrams

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