distraction

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act of distracting or the condition of being distracted.
2. n. Something, especially an amusement, that distracts.
3. n. Extreme mental or emotional disturbance; obsession: loved the puppy to distraction.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of drawing or the state of being drawn apart; separation.
2. n. A drawing away of the mind from one point or course to another or others; diversion of thought or feeling into a different channel or toward different objects.
3. n. A drawing of the mind in different directions; mental confusion arising from diverse or opposing considerations; perplexity; bewilderment: as, the distraction caused by a multitude of questions or of cares.
4. n. Confusion of affairs; tumult; disorder: as, political distractions.
5. n. Violent mental excitement, or extreme agony of mind, simulating madness in its tendencies or outward exhibition; despairing perturbation: as, this toothache drives me to distraction.
6. n. A state of disordered reason; frenzy; insanity; madness.
7. n. A cause of diversion or of bewilderment, as of the attention or the mind; something that distracts, in any sense: as, the distractions of gayety or of business; labor is often a distraction from gloomy thoughts.
8. n. In Greek grammar, the dialectic or poetical use of two similar vowels identical in pronunciation, or differing only in quantity, for a single long vowel in the ordinary Greek form: as, φόως for φῶς, ὁρόω for ὁρῶ, κράατος for κρᾶτος,κληηδών for κληδών etc. Such forms are really examples of assimilation, as an intermediate stage between an earlier open form with different vowels and the later contracted form: as, ὀράω, ὀρόω, ὁρῶ.
9. n. In French-Canadian law, the divesting of the right to costs from the client or other person presumptively or ordinarily entitled, and the declaration of it to belong to the attorney, guardian, or other person equitably entitled.—
10. n. A confusing division or course; a misleading separation or detachment of parts.
11. n. Synonyms Derangement, aberration of mind, delirium, mania.
12. n. In surgery, the act of pulling upon the segments of a limb so as to cause a separation of the opposing joint-surfaces.

Wiktionary

1. n. Something that distracts.
2. n. The process of being distracted.
3. n. Perturbation; disorder; disturbance; confusion.
4. n. Mental disorder; a deranged state of mind; insanity.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of distracting; a drawing apart; separation.
2. n. That which diverts attention; a diversion.
3. n. A diversity of direction; detachment.
4. n. State in which the attention is called in different ways; confusion; perplexity.
5. n. Confusion of affairs; tumult; disorder.
6. n. Agitation from violent emotions; perturbation of mind; despair.
7. n. Derangement of the mind; madness.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. mental turmoil
2. n. an entertainment that provokes pleased interest and distracts you from worries and vexations
3. n. the act of distracting; drawing someone's attention away from something
4. n. an obstacle to attention