Crossword clues for misdirection
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Misdirection \Mis`di*rec"tion\, n.
The act of directing wrongly, or the state of being so directed.
(Law) An error of a judge in charging the jury on a matter of law.
--Mozley & W.The direction of another's attention to an unimportant place or matter, for the purpose of being able to perform an action undetected; as, misdirection is an important part of a magician's art.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. 1 An act of misleading, of convincing someone to concentrate in an incorrect direction. 2 (context UK legal English) An error of law within a judgement committed by a judge or judges of a lower court, particularly as found by an appeals court
WordNet
n. an incorrect charge to a jury given by a judge
incorrect directions or instructions
management that is careless or inefficient; "he accomplished little due to the mismanagement of his energies" [syn: mismanagement]
the act of distracting; drawing someone's attention away from something; "conjurers are experts at misdirection" [syn: distraction]
Wikipedia
Misdirection is a form of deception in which the attention of an audience is focused on one thing in order to distract its attention from another.
Managing the audience's attention is the aim of all theater, it is the foremost requirement of theatrical magic. Whether the magic is of a "pocket trick" variety, or, a large stage production, misdirection is the central secret of all magic.
Though it is difficult to say who first coined the term "misdirection," an early reference was made by an influential performer and writer, Nevil Maskelyne, "It consists admittedly in misleading the spectator's senses, in order to screen from detection certain details for which secrecy is required." (Our Magic, page 117, second edition copyright 1946)
Around the same time, magician, artist and author Harlan Tarbell noted, "Nearly the whole art of sleight of hand depends on this art of misdirection." (Harlan Tarbell, The Tarbell Course in Magic Vol. 1)
"The central secret of conjuring...is a manipulation of interest." (Henry Hay, The Amateur Magicians Handbook, pg. 2, copyright 1972). The term is used to describe either the effect (the victim's focus on an unimportant object) or the sleight of hand or patter (the magician's speech) that creates it.
There are two basic ways to "misdirect" your audience; one is time-sensitive, the other isn't.
The time-sensitive approach encourages the audience to look away for a fleeting moment, so that the sleight or move may be accomplished undetected.
The other approach has much to do with re-framing the audience's perception, and perhaps very little to do with the senses. The minds of the audience members are distracted into thinking that an extraneous factor has much to do with the accomplishment of the feat, whereas it really doesn't have any bearing on the effect at all. "The true skill of the magician is in the skill he exhibits in influencing the spectators mind." (Dariel Fitzkee, Magic by Misdirection, pg. 33, copyright 1975).
Misdirection may refer to:
- Misdirection (magic), a technique used when performing magic tricks
- Feint, a technique used in strategy games and warfare
- Misdirection employed by criminals for the purpose of pickpocketing
- Limited hangout, a technique used by the intelligence services
- Counter trey, a technique used in American Football
- Psychobabble and technobabble, techniques used in fast talk
Usage examples of "misdirection".
The most important thing in psychological misdirection is to act naturally.
You can spot a time misdirection trick because the illusionist always lets the audience know what the interval is.
And our suspicion led to misdirection two: you planted the newspaper article about Grady, the restaurant receipt, the press pass and the hotel key to make us conclude you were going to kill him.
You know the tricky little bastard depends on misdirection, or getting a man to think along natural lines while he pulls something plain logic would never lead one to expect.
It seemed that with everything going on, the Ministry of Misdirection had become moot.
First there is misdirection, where I see to it that you look only where I want you to.
With a prodigious skill at misdirection, Kaliga avoided telling him anything at all, let alone something useful.
But by a combination of a simple secret that has been kept securely, many years of practice, a certain amount of audience misdirection, and the use of conventional magic techniques it has become the keystone of my act and my career.
I believe that if I can perform it regularly enough then extra rehearsals, beyond stage movements, misdirection and patter, should not be necessary.
Incredibly devious conditions hatch cosmologies of telepathic misdirection - Mind screen movies overlapping make recordings ahead of leave before thinking was recorded - Our most precise data came from U.
From experience, I knew that he used misdirection the same way magicians used it.
It was a small misdirection, but it would compel the pirates to search the rest of the inn before setting out in pursuit.
He spoke frankly of his attempted misdirection and its unfortunate results and made a point of the fact that all three of the captured men had wished to return when given the chance.
We plan a simple misdirection, a sleight of hand, so that our enemies cannot stop us.
Take away the flourishes and misdirection, the staffs and cloaks and circles of stones, and all that remained was vast, destructive power.