distract

English

Etymology

From Latin distrahere (“to pull apart”), from dis- + trahere (“to pull”).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /dɪsˈtɹækt/, X-SAMPA: /dIs"tr`{kt/
• Rhymes: -ækt

Verb

distract (third-person singular simple present distracts, present participle distracting, simple past and past participle distracted)

1. (transitive) To divert the attention of.

   The crowd was distracted by a helicopter hovering over the stadium when the only goal of the game was scored.

   • 2011 December 10, David Ornstein, “Arsenal 1 - 0 Everton”, BBC Sport:

     While Gunners boss Arsene Wenger had warned his players against letting the pre-match festivities distract them from the task at hand, they clearly struggled for fluency early on.

Related terms

• distracted
• distracting
• distraction

Translations

To divert the attention of

• Asturian: distrayer (ast)
• Bulgarian: отвличам (bg) (otvličam), разсейвам (bg) (razsejvam)
• Catalan: distreure (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 分心 (cmn) (fēnxīn), 分散 (cmn) (fēnsàn)

• Finnish: viedä (+ genitive) huomio
• French: distraire (fr)
• Galician: distraer (gl)

• German: ablenken (de)
• Hebrew: הסיח את הדעת (he) (hisíakh et hadá'at)
• Italian: distrarre (it)
• Japanese: 気をそらす (ja) (ki-o sorasu)
• Maori: wawao (mi), whakawarea (mi)
• Portuguese: distrair (pt)
• Russian: отвлекать (ru) (otvlekát') impf., отвлечь (ru) (otvléč') pf.
• Spanish: distraer (es)
• Turkish: dikkati dağıtmak (tr)