The AI-powered English dictionary
plural descants
A lengthy discourse on a subject. quotations examples
Upon that simplest of themes how magnificent a descant!
1828, Thomas De Quincey, “Elements of Rhetoric”, in Blackwood's Magazine
(music) A counterpoint melody sung or played above the theme. examples
third-person singular simple present descants, present participle descanting, simple past and past participle descanted
(intransitive) To discuss at length. quotations examples
but shun the establishment of a bachelor who has hung a pendulum between temptation and prudence till the age of———but of all subjects, age is the one on which it is most invidious to descant.
1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], pages 128–129
“… 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, …”
1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad
Involving some interesting, intellectual trips, she was descanting lightly to right and left.
1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 121
(intransitive, music) To sing or play a descant. examples