From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdistractdis‧tract /dɪˈstrækt/ ●●○ verb [transitive] DISTURBto take someone’s attention away from something by making them look at or listen to something else Try not to distract the other students.distract somebody/something from something Coverage of the war was used to distract attention from other matters. —distracting adjective→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
distract• Alan is moving slowly, apparently distracted by other cases.• 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.• I'd love to tell you what he did with it but I must not get distracted from the task in hand.• Don't distract me while I'm driving!• To distract myself, I was playing a little game wherein I tried to determine which apparatus I hated most.• She looked rather as the Duchess of Windsor did in distracted old age.• A more complicated mount might have distracted one's eye from the flowers and the frame.• A horizontal striping pattern distracts the eye and disguises the pattern of light and dark.• A plot should always be strong enough to distract you from hats.• Don't distract your father while he's driving.distract attention• Many experienced speakers mar their conversations as well as their orations with a profusion of ums and ers which distract attention.• 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.• It also distracted attention from the continued effects of racism.• But his banter was a way of distracting attention from the issue at hand.• Police said the message was a decoy to distract attention from the real danger area.• Combine roses with earlier or later flowering plants, and with evergreens to distract attention from their leafless stems in winter.Origin distract (1300-1400) Latin distractus, past participle of distrahere “to pull apart” 