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What is "distract"

Crossword clues for distract

distract
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
distract
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
easily
▪ He's easily distracted from anything that isn't creative writing, though, very up-and-down.
▪ For example, consider a very sensitive child who is easily distracted by every sight and sound around her.
▪ They are often too easily distracted by their own anxiety.
▪ No wonder she was easily distracted and forgetful at school.
▪ My first weakness is that I get easily distracted when I study.
▪ Once they are on task, they are easily distracted by other children or even by objects on their desk.
▪ The more she does this, the more easily distracted she is.
too
▪ But Ronni, distracted too, reacted too slowly.
▪ What you want in a counselling room is something welcoming but not too distracting.
▪ The Goddard visitors' center was one possibility, but the various displays seemed too distracting.
▪ Yet tonight he could not relax; he was too distracted, ill-at-ease with the atmosphere in his own household.
▪ So he was too distracted by other matters to focus on the East.
■ NOUN
attention
▪ Such comments have distracted attention from a long-awaited improvement in the economy.
▪ But his banter was a way of distracting attention from the issue at hand.
▪ Instead, distract your child's attention from the buckles by fitting a play tray over the top.
▪ Combine roses with earlier or later flowering plants, and with evergreens to distract attention from their leafless stems in winter.
▪ His clumsy attempt to distract her attention was all the warning she needed.
▪ He gestures at the building behind him, as if trying to distract the animal's attention.
▪ He distracts attention with homophobic rants and attacks on opposition politicians and journalists.
▪ Rachel could have brought the snow in and let it melt soas to distract attention from herself.
child
▪ Once they are on task, they are easily distracted by other children or even by objects on their desk.
▪ The stern overseer would never have allowed her to distract the other children.
mind
▪ I hoped that it would distract his mind from his problems at work.
▪ They could exchange gossip about the parish; anything to distract his mind.
thought
▪ At least then there would have been the chatter of her neighbours to distract her thoughts.
▪ Just then, however, came an interruption which distracted the thoughts of every man there.
▪ The arrival of Joanna, brought from hospital by Ian, distracted her from sorrowful thoughts, for which she was thankful.
▪ When distracting thoughts occur, try to ignore them by not dwelling upon them and return to your breathing exercise.
▪ Finally, my mind was distracted by thoughts of home.
■ VERB
become
▪ No one suggests that the workaholic Harrison dallied or became distracted.
▪ It becomes heavy work to distract Harriet from brooding about lost Elton.
▪ But, the reader will become confused and distracted by passives, so avoid them.
get
▪ I'd love to tell you what he did with it but I must not get distracted from the task in hand.
▪ When you see jargon from other industries, you probably get confused and distracted, wanting familiar terms instead.
▪ We are well aware by now that history makes mistakes, that it gets distracted, falls asleep, loses its way.
▪ My first weakness is that I get easily distracted when I study.
▪ The bomb-sniffing system runs automatically and does not get distracted or tired.
▪ I get nervous, or get distracted.
▪ And like a little kid, he is interested in everything, often getting distracted.
▪ A toddler may tune out and get distracted when pictures in a book become too intricate.
seem
▪ At its best the effect is like film music; at its worst it seems distracting.
▪ In fact, if you have called me on the phone recently and noticed that I seemed distracted, take no offense.
▪ Everyone seemed cool and distracted, uninterested in trade or cultural exchanges.
▪ The Goddard visitors' center was one possibility, but the various displays seemed too distracting.
▪ But she seemed distracted and moody, crying one moment, giggling the next.
▪ Hinds seemed more subdued, distracted.
try
▪ If the area concerned is not suitable, you should try to distract their attention elsewhere.
▪ He tried everything to distract me.
▪ He gestures at the building behind him, as if trying to distract the animal's attention.
▪ I was trying to distract people from the craziness in which we live; and definitely not point the finger at it.
▪ If he walked fast he was too aware of trying to distract himself.
▪ The babysitter would try to distract Hannah while they sneaked out the door to work.
▪ She plunged deeply into work to try and distract herself.
▪ Always the perfect aide, Serrigny tried to distract him with Rabelaisian reminiscences from army life of twenty years ago.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
divert/distract/draw attention from sth
▪ But his banter was a way of distracting attention from the issue at hand.
▪ Combine roses with earlier or later flowering plants, and with evergreens to distract attention from their leafless stems in winter.
▪ It also distracted attention from the continued effects of racism.
▪ Lisa tells us it diverts attention from the pain.
▪ Police said the message was a decoy to distract attention from the real danger area.
▪ Such comments have distracted attention from a long-awaited improvement in the economy.
▪ The authorities are said to take the view that the Gulf war will distract attention from civilian casualties in Jaffna.
▪ They know how to make themselves look good, and they also know how to divert attention from the less flattering stories.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Don't distract me while I'm driving!
▪ Don't distract your father while he's driving.
▪ I was distracted by the sound of a car alarm in the street.
▪ The couple behind us kept distracting everyone by talking during the movie.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A horizontal striping pattern distracts the eye and disguises the pattern of light and dark.
▪ A more complicated mount might have distracted one's eye from the flowers and the frame.
▪ A plot should always be strong enough to distract you from hats.
▪ Alan is moving slowly, apparently distracted by other cases.
▪ I'd love to tell you what he did with it but I must not get distracted from the task in hand.
▪ She looked rather as the Duchess of Windsor did in distracted old age.
▪ To distract myself, I was playing a little game wherein I tried to determine which apparatus I hated most.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Distract

Distract \Dis*tract"\, a. [L. distractus, p. p. of distrahere to draw asunder; dis- + trahere to draw. See Trace, and cf. Distraught.]

  1. Separated; drawn asunder. [Obs.]

  2. Insane; mad. [Obs.]
    --Drayton.

Distract

Distract \Dis*tract"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Distracted, old p. p. Distraught; p. pr. & vb. n. Distracting.]

  1. To draw apart or away; to divide; to disjoin.

    A city . . . distracted from itself.
    --Fuller.

  2. To draw (the sight, mind, or attention) in different directions; to perplex; to confuse; as, to distract the eye; to distract the attention.

    Mixed metaphors . . . distract the imagination.
    --Goldsmith.

  3. To agitate by conflicting passions, or by a variety of motives or of cares; to confound; to harass.

    Horror and doubt distract His troubled thoughts.
    --Milton.

  4. To unsettle the reason of; to render insane; to craze; to madden; -- most frequently used in the participle, distracted.

    A poor mad soul; . . . poverty hath distracted her.
    --Shak.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
distract

mid-14c., "to draw asunder or apart, to turn aside" (literal and figurative), from Latin distractus, past participle of distrahere "draw in different directions," from dis- "away" (see dis-) + trahere "to draw" (see tract (n.1)).\n

\nSense of "to throw into a state of mind in which one knows not how to act" is from 1580s. Related: Distracted; distracting; distractedly; distractedness.

Wiktionary
distract

  1. 1 (context obsolete English) Separated; drawn asunder. 2 (context obsolete English) Insane; mad. v

  2. (context transitive English) To divert the attention of.

WordNet
distract

  1. v. draw someone's attention away from something; "The thief distracted the bystanders"; "He deflected his competitors" [syn: deflect]

  2. disturb in mind or make uneasy or cause to be worried or alarmed; "She was rather perturbed by the news that her father was seriously ill" [syn: perturb, unhinge, disquiet, trouble, cark, disorder]

Usage examples of "distract".

She grinned suddenly, unable to resist aji opportunity to twit him, if only to distract herself from her misery.

The loose subordination, and extensive possessions, of the Huns and the Alani, delayed the conquests, and distracted the councils, of that victorious people.

Or the rain might fall, as it does in Algeria, in endless deluges, making a wet dark well of the street, but the class was hardly distracted.

The lap dog somehow managed to distract my attention and twice I even reached out to touch it, but Lambert imperiously waved his hand, whereupon both Alphonsine and the lap dog vanished behind the screen.

No true climber would ever distract a fellow alpinist who was in the middle of taking on a tough problem.

His stories not only distract Arete and Alkinoos but also make him glamorous in their eyes.

Giliead grumbled from the opening as he tossed in an armload of fallen branches and kindling, and Tremaine, distracted by the idea of a fire and hot food, mentally put the wall aside for the moment.

Philip never confessed it, but he had settled for the bleak comfort of hopelessness the moment the voice of a WMTG newsreader coming from the portable radio on his desk had distracted his attention from an elaborate doodle with the announcement that a third name had been definitively added to that of Shane Auslander and Trey Wilk.

Steff, aware that his presence could be distracting at the best of times, decided to cut the girl some slack and sit down, pulling up a chair in the backmost row of the semi-circle.

I make sure to fill his wineglass with an excellent Barbaresco he keeps thanking me with a nod and a relaxed smile, his eyes lingering on mine, only sometimes distracted by the lights and cameras and various assistants swirling around us.

Dahlia gave him a look that was blanker than usual, since she was on the distracted side.

Phil Barrett was distracted, dividing his attention between his prisoners and the entrance to the two trails that led through the blowdown and intersected in the clearing.

I have been so distracted that I forgot that you went to Bokhara with Lieutenant Burnes several years ago.

This time, Boran would not be distracted by thoughts of possessing Siri or even of watching Hunter suffer emotionally.

In short, though distracted first by the two capitals, and afterwards by the formal partition of the empire, the extraordinary felicity of arrangement maintains an order and a regular progression.