DISTRACT • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Distract

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/dɪstrˈækt/ Listen

verb

Distract v. t. (past & past part. distracted, old past part. distraught; pres. part. distracting)

1.

To draw apart or away; to divide; to disjoin. "A city... distracted from itself."

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."

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."

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."

adjective

Distract adj.

1.

Separated; drawn asunder. (Obs.)

2.

Insane; mad. (Obs.)

See images of 'Distract'

Etymology of 'Distract'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Distract" Quotes from Famous Books

... after breakfast, in her little round hat, and, putting her hand upon my shoulder, asks me in the most musical of voices whether I have finished with my paper, and am ready for a walk, I feel ashamed that I have allowed myself to distract my attention even for ten minutes from her charming self, to read stupid leading articles and wretched police cases. But men are utterly without sentiment. Reading the Times in the honeymoon! I wonder how the delightful creatures can give us two minutes' thought. Carrie, however, seems to live ...

— The Cockaynes in Paris - 'Gone abroad' • Blanchard Jerrold

... Sonya returning from the yard chilled and frightened. "I believe the whole of Moscow will burn, there's an awful glow! Natasha, do look! You can see it from the window," she said to her cousin, evidently wishing to distract her mind. ...

— War and Peace • Leo Tolstoy

... your windows, always take care to have them well up, when they are not being used. A little piece slipping down, and flapping with every draught, will distract a patient. ...

— Notes on Nursing - What It Is, and What It Is Not • Florence Nightingale

... editions, in good bindings, and an excellent very choice selection of subjects and authors. There were books in various languages of which Faith could make nothing—but sighs; in her own mother tongue there were varieties of learning and literature enough to distract her. All however that the owner could know of other hands about his books, was that there was ...

— Say and Seal, Volume I • Susan Warner

... current of your own thoughts, use them and listen to them; so far as they are a too unworthy expression of what we ought to think and feel, follow your own reflections, and let the words neither offend you nor distract you. ...

— The Christian Life - Its Course, Its Hindrances, And Its Helps • Thomas Arnold

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