dis ‧ tract /dɪˈstrækt/ BrE AmE verb [transitive]
[ Date: 1300-1400 ; Language: Latin ; Origin: distractus , past participle of distrahere 'to pull apart' ]
to 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