desultory

• As his health was delicate his education was desultory, and at sixteen he began to study law but without much seriousness. —  The Short-story
• But, somehow, it's chiefly because it will be so much easier to stay on the ranch and be--desultory, as Aunt Lucinda says,--that I think I ought to go I see, Honey. —  Blue Bonnet's Ranch Party
• His reading was desultory, and the poetic faculty, expending itself on whatever subjects came to hand, produced great quantities of manuscripts, which were destroyed almost as soon as written. —  The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 96, October 1865
• It was believed that the last would be compelled, for the defence of her own shores against those raids,--desultory, it is true but yet uncertain as to the time and place where the attack would fall,--to withdraw a number of troops that would sensibly reduce the great odds then overbearing the Prussian king. —  Types of Naval Officers Drawn from the History of the British Navy
• He had been desultory, but never before had he had much reason or warning against it. —  David Harum A Story of American Life

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