fly off at a tangent
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To suddenly change subject or direction in a conversation
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
đổi chủ đề hoặc hướng đột ngột trong cuộc trò chuyện
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: move quickly in a different direction
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The discussion about politics flew off at a tangent when someone mentioned a movie
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “fly off at a tangent” mean?
To suddenly change subject or direction in a conversation Literally: move quickly in a different direction
Is “fly off at a tangent” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.