Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To cause to turn away from the original focus of attention or interest; divert.
- v. To pull in conflicting emotional directions; unsettle.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To draw apart; pull in different directions and separate; divide.
- To turn or draw away from any object; divert from any point toward another point, or toward various other objects: as, to distract a person's attention from his occupation.
- To cause distraction in; draw in different directions or toward different objects; confuse by diverse or opposing considerations; perplex; bewilder: as, to distract the mind with cares.
- To disorder the reason of; derange; render frantic or mad.
- Distracted; frantic; deranged: same as distraught.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. obsolete Separated; drawn asunder.
- adj. obsolete Insane; mad.
- v. To draw apart or away; to divide; to disjoin.
- v. To draw (the sight, mind, or attention) in different directions; to perplex; to confuse
- v. To agitate by conflicting passions, or by a variety of motives or of cares; to confound; to harass.
- v. To unsettle the reason of; to render insane; to craze; to madden; -- most frequently used in the participle,
distracted .
WordNet 3.0
- v. draw someone's attention away from something
- v. disturb in mind or make uneasy or cause to be worried or alarmed
Etymologies
- From Latin distrahere ("to pull apart"), from dis- + trahere ("to pull"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English distracten, from Latin distrahere, distract-, to pull away : dis-, apart; see dis- + trahere, to draw. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The truth of it is clear, in part, because there are no special considerations (eg the speech being “free”) that distract from the general truth being true on its face.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Could Students Be Suspended for “Beat the Jew” Game
“They are rabbit trails designed to distract from the point at hand by miring us in long, unsolvable, and previously discussed semantic gamesmanship.”
“No need to distract from the center ring of this circus.”
Another present from Georgia Republicans (Blog for Democracy)
“Let the media focus on the mess in the US rather than following her around looking for crumbs that can distract from the Democrapic mess. robertebob”
“This whole issue is a blatant political effort to distract from the resistance to the administration's big government health care plans by returning to the campaign mode of "Bush is Bad.”
“He said "supporters of the government takeover of health care and the liberals who want to give health care to illegals are using my opposition as an excuse to distract from the critical questions being raised about this poorly conceived plan.”
Source: Joe Wilson racking up the dollars after 'you lie' comment
“The supporters of the government takeover of health care and the liberals who want to give health care to illegals are using my opposition as an excuse to distract from the critical questions being raised about this poorly conceived plan.”
“So much heat is coming Obama's way and this is nothing but a stunt to distract from the heat but it won't work!”
“You know the trolls are desperate when they attempt to distract from the discussion that they themselves started.”
“So they want the clowns up front, to distract from the real stuff.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘distract’.
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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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Linda(G4)
Accurate, address, afford, alert, analyze, ancestor, annual, apparent, arena, arrest, ascend, assist and 126 more...
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ptssssssss
uemph
sandcastle, for all to see, but, mostly, them, if they wish, sorta hope, maybe, pop-up, snap, gotcha, cause then i have... and 20 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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Mimi
sober, rhetoric, oratory, ergo, venom, diaphragm, Medieval, piety, incognito, ruse, calamity, evidence and 251 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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fbharjo's Words
jumelle, kef, kenspeckle, lautitious, essentic, pilpulistic, impavid, cicurant, clou, chrysostomic, miasma, teleology and 1625 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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Words to learn
omit, in all likelihood, unlikely, utterly, every now and then, once in a while, deceptive, consequence, after all, ever since, reckon, show off and 52 more...
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March10th
Vocabulary discussed from a talk by Nigel Marsh about work-life balance.
take stock, time out, punish, thorny, wretched, weakling, rather, whether, startled, warrior, worrier, timeframe and 9 more...
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Shakespeare Esoterica
bourne, fardel, bodkin, rub, contumely, coxcomb, knave, distract, bum-bailey
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2012-12-06
Tweets
Looking for tweets for distract.
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