distrait
/dɪˈstreɪ
/ /ˈdɪstreɪ /adjective (feminine distraite /dɪˈstreɪt/) [predicative]
Distracted or absent-minded: he seemed oddly distrait...
- She towers over most human beings (myself included) and there's a distrait quality about her eyes.
- Perhaps, patients about to undergo operations at the hands of distrait surgeons could be allowed to get their tattoos done on the NHS.
- His manner was, I thought, a shade distrait, a little other worldly.
Synonyms
distracted, preoccupied, absorbed, engrossed, abstracted, distant, faraway;
absent-minded, absent, forgetful, vague, inattentive, oblivious, heedless, in a brown study, wool-gathering, with one's head in the clouds, in a world of one's own
informal scatterbrained, miles away
Origin
Mid 18th century: French, from Old French destrait, past participle of destraire 'distract', from Latin distrahere 'pull apart' (see distract).