To "go off on one".... To rant aimlessly, or even aimfully but never stick to one topic.

When shiney new words, information and concepts distract you in conversations or in writing.

When you're interested in everything all at once.

Common to, but not specific to ADD or ADHD; but also personality.
Murph: "heeeey girl.... Do you remember that perfume we used to wear in high school? Gosh what was it called?!"

TangentGirl: "ooooh yeah! It was also called wild lagoon by Coty, the base note was vetiver essential oil, but did you know these other 20 perfumes we like have that same base note! Oh here's a recipe for making your own perfume, oh did you know that there's a word for having a fetish about smells, ooooh or that the guy who made that used to work for Chanel, oooh remember when we used to buy that other one too, oh or fake version of CK1, and then remember at prom the first dance song was Words by Boyzone... And I had curly hair.... Gosh.... don't you miss walks along the coast at night coming home from that nightclub without our shoes on?"

Murph: "...............”

TangentGirl: "Murph.....?”

Murph: "Um.... So it's called Wild Lagoon then?"

TangentGirl: "oh god no... That was just in Europe, it's called Monsoon by Coty"

Murph: "Mmmm-K.... Imma gunna go eat dinner now... Breakfast has gone cold"

🤣
by CombustibleTangents June 13, 2020
Get the Tangent mug.
Going everywhere and anywhere but the line of thought you were meant to follow
English teacher: "How did you bring Ned Kelly into an essay about a book that has nothing to do with him, then finish up with a short history of cuba?"

"I may have gone off on a tangent"
by LOCKZILLA0001 May 21, 2012
Get the Tangent mug.
A tangent is a "computer". Except, not really. It will contently break, almost never work, and crash with the blue screen of death often. All at the University of Dayton wonder why they are required to use such terrible "things". A tangent is equivalent to a 1995 Gateway computer. It can not run windows Vista, yet it tries anyway. Often problems are windows explorer not working, sound deciding to stay on or off for an undetermined amount of time, dvd drives to not work, shut down not to be an option, screens to randomly shut off, hard drives to out of nowhere not know who you are, keys to break off, buttons not to work and such things.

It is also defined as a paper weight or a large expensive portable DVD player.
1. Hey welcome to UD here is your Tangent.
2. Damn it I still need to go buy a computer for college!
_____________________________________________


Hey, lets go throw my tangent out the window and collect the insurance money on it!
by Tangent...ugh March 9, 2009
Get the Tangent mug.
Noun: A completely and utterly worthless computer company that sells blocks a shit, aka laptops, to college students. The company attempts to conceal their horrible product by including "exclusive" university features. What they don't tell you is that you can by a laptop for over $1,000 cheaper that is better performance-wise, and those exclusive programs are free from the university website.

Can also be used to reference a worthless piece of crap, or a dick move.
Student 1: "Wow, this is the fifth time in a month I've taken my Tangent computer in. What a piece of shit."
Student 2: "You should fake an accident to your computer and get the warranty money. Buy something better."

Kid 1: "My car broke down again."
Kid 2: "What a fucking Tangent."

Kid 1: "Dude, Tangent move..."
Kid 2: "My bad."
by Flyers January 15, 2008
Get the Tangent mug.
1. In mathematics, a function in trigonometry
2. To go off in a completely different subject
1. "The tangent5 of 45 is 1. The tangent of 60 is er..... er.... er...."
2. He went off in a tangent
by jiexi December 9, 2003
Get the tangent mug.
1.) In geometry, any line in a plane that touches a circle in one, and only one, point.
2.) In trignometry, the ratio of the length on the opposite side of an angle to the length of the adjacent side of an angle.
1.) Point T is tangent to the circle.
2.) tan60ºӨ = the square root of 3
tan45ºӨ = 1
tan30ºӨ = the square root of 3 divided by 3
Get the tangent mug.
n. 1. the process or act of going on a tangent. 2. going way the fuck off of the original topic of conversation. 3. does this motherfucker know what we are talking about?
Person A: "Did you ever wonder how babies are made? It seems so simple, yet so complex."

Person B: "Dude, I know what you mean. My beer bottle just broke and I don't know why. I didn't think being a drunk could be so complex."

Person A: "What the fuck are you talking about?"

Person B: "Why are beer bottles so complex, and why do they lead to the birth of unwanted children?"

Person A: "Why must you go off on such a tangentation?"

Person B: "That reminds me, I accidently threw my red shirt in with the whites."
by Brian Bolek February 17, 2008
Get the tangentation mug.