From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdetract from something phrasal verbSPOILto make something seem less good OPP enhance One mistake is not going to detract from your achievement.GRAMMAR: Using the progressiveDetract is not used in the progressive. You say: Litter detracts from the appearance of the town. ✗Don’t say: Litter is detracting from the appearance of the town. → detract→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
detract from • We need to ask whether the interest in Machiavellian behaviour is detracting from the positive side of political activity.• This would allow some room for choice, but would not detract from the fundamental notion of a centrally planned service.• It would also detract from the open aspect of the field and more generally from the landscape character of the areas.• Some observers worry that the role of landlord will detract from the primary business of five-star hotels.• Her striking mannerisms detract from the reality of the character.• They felt that the proposed development would detract from the rural character of the area because of its size, height and bulk.• All this was strategy he had developed to detract from their discrepancy in height.• Any fears that either food or service might detract from this otherwise delightful scene were immediately dismissed -- both are excellent. 