/ dɪˈstrækt; NAmE / verb
[ vn ] distract sb/sth (from sth) to take sb's attention away from what they are trying to do
SYN divert :
You're distracting me from my work.
Don't talk to her—she's very easily distracted.
It was another attempt to distract attention from the truth.
► dis·tract·ing adjective :
distracting thoughts
a distracting noise
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WORD ORIGIN
late Middle English (also in the sense pull in different directions ): from Latin distract- drawn apart, from the verb distrahere , from dis- apart + trahere to draw, drag.