Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To turn aside or cause to turn aside; bend or deviate.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To cause to turn aside; turn or bend from a right line or a regular course.
- To turn away or aside; deviate from a true course or a right line; swerve.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To make (something) deviate from its original path.
- v. intransitive To deviate from its original path.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To cause to turn aside; to bend.
- v. To turn aside; to deviate from a right or a horizontal line, or from a proper position, course or direction; to swerve.
WordNet 3.0
- v. draw someone's attention away from something
- v. impede the movement of (an opponent or a ball)
- v. turn aside and away from an initial or intended course
- v. prevent the occurrence of; prevent from happening
- v. turn from a straight course, fixed direction, or line of interest
Etymologies
- Latin dēflectere : dē-, de- + flectere, to bend. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Does she think if she screams "Death Panels" it will deflect from the very unflattering Vanity Fair article about her?”
“Have you forgotten this or are the pathetic misleading and anti police stories your idea of reigniting the class war to deflect from the current ills of the New Labour Government.”
“Meanwhile the GOP has embraced the tenets of the KKK at the core values level and all you can do is deflect from the evil that you “now” represent.”
“Overtly talking about “McCarthyism” or depicting a desire for transparency in govt. as somehow indicating a crypto-McCarthyite interest serves to deflect from the high and holy office attorneys too often imagine themselves holding.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Lawyers, Treason, and Deception: A Response to Andrew McCarthy
“Michael B: Overtly talking about “McCarthyism” or depicting a desire for transparency in govt. as somehow indicating a crypto-McCarthyite interest serves to deflect from the high and holy office attorneys too often imagine themselves holding.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Lawyers, Treason, and Deception: A Response to Andrew McCarthy
“The dog for the girls, the rant on Wall Street bonuses, the rumour (according to Andrew Neil) that Michelle is pregnant, rather deflect from the issues he faces.”
“Because all they want is attention and engagement to distract and deflect from the topic.”
“McCain knows he needs to deflect from the issues to stay in the game.”
“Way to deflect from the fact that his own lack of foreign policy experience has been exposed.”
“Obviously, she missed it or she tried to deflect from the question ever so unsuccessfully john”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘deflect’.
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POL - scandalous (single words only)
acolyte, archrival, backhander, backlash, baksheesh, bashing, boo, bribery, cadre, chicanery, clash, coercion and 256 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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AFET - diplomacy
broker a peace ac..., client state, deadlocked peace ..., embassy, freeze, goodwill ambassador, hinterland, interfere in dome..., intervene personally, maintain technica..., mediation, no business as usual and 670 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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POL - scandalous (words and collocati...
Words and collocations associated with political scandal
blow the whistle, boo, cronyism and rigging, democratic deficit, denigrate, dirty linen, fiasco, finger pointing a..., graft, hidden account, hush money, illicit financing... and 578 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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Words-I-tend-to-forget
I have read them many times before and looked them up as well, and yet I forget their meaning. So, this list should collect them for me for revision.
glib, audacious, imminent, deflect, convention, calytrix, overbearing, regressive, condescending, crouch, impasse, agonistic and 11 more...
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GRE
GRE words from Princeton Review guide, ETS GRE Book from 2010 (for revised test), New Yorker/NY Times articles.
sycophant, obsequious, volubility, equanimity, enervate, effrontery, impertinent, platitude, impudence, quiescent, propitiate, equivocate and 124 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Favorites
disparage, partisan, cupidity, hokum, tussle, odious, dastardly, overture, plane, chronic, peering, peer and 328 more...
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GRE
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abhor, abjure, abrasive, abridge, abstain, acme, activism, adhere, admonish and 195 more...
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Misc. Words.
Words I like to use, words I like but may forget.
corrosion, astonish, solace, ferment, continuum, kinesthetic, permeate, repose, caprice, cardinal, discourse, surrender and 610 more...
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G & G
GRE , GMAT , TOEFL , IELTS , SAT 。。。
alphabet soup, vernacular, aberrant, abeyance, abet, recant, contrite, reiterate, patois, skew, senate, deliberative and 179 more...
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What, another list?
ravishing, ravenous, pronk, brinksmanship, jaspe, mottle, chasm, testy, temperament, ponder, personally, phantom and 206 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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Aeonn's Words
discombobulation, dank, crass, abolishment, quite, ubiquitous, crank, catapult, sponge, click, queer, irish and 124 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for deflect.
dailyword House would do this a lot in order to keep Wilson from talking about his Vicodin usage or something different. Jul 26, 2012
vanishedone T.H.E. on modular academic courses: 'I kept encountering a story about a molecular biologist who opted to spend a year at a university in California and had been deflected from his true calling into drug-driven self-destruction by taking an optional ceramics module.' Nov 6, 2008