distract
verb /dɪˈstrækt/
/dɪˈstrækt/
Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they distract | /dɪˈstrækt/ /dɪˈstrækt/ |
| he / she / it distracts | /dɪˈstrækts/ /dɪˈstrækts/ |
| past simple distracted | /dɪˈstræktɪd/ /dɪˈstræktɪd/ |
| past participle distracted | /dɪˈstræktɪd/ /dɪˈstræktɪd/ |
| -ing form distracting | /dɪˈstræktɪŋ/ /dɪˈstræktɪŋ/ |
- distract somebody/something (from something) to take somebody’s attention away from what they are trying to do synonym 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.
- He’s easily distracted from his work
- an attempt to distract attention away from the real problems in the country
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadverb- easily
- momentarily
- temporarily
- …
- (away) from
Word Originlate 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’.