| / English Dictionary |
DISTRACTION
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The act of distracting; drawing someone's attention away from something
Example:
conjurers are experts at misdirection
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("distraction" is a kind of...):
alteration; revision (the act of revising or altering (involving reconsideration and modification))
Derivation:
distract (draw someone's attention away from something)
Sense 2
Meaning:
An entertainment that provokes pleased interest and distracts you from worries and vexations
Synonyms:
beguilement; distraction
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("distraction" is a kind of...):
amusement; entertainment (an activity that is diverting and that holds the attention)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Mental turmoil
Example:
he drives me to distraction
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("distraction" is a kind of...):
confusedness; confusion; disarray; mental confusion; muddiness (a mental state characterized by a lack of clear and orderly thought and behavior)
Derivation:
distract (disturb in mind or make uneasy or cause to be worried or alarmed)
Sense 4
Meaning:
An obstacle to attention
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("distraction" is a kind of...):
inattention (lack of attention)
Context examples:
“I am very busy just now, and I desire no distractions,” my friend answered.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
A mental disorder characterized by inattention, easy distraction, careless mistakes and avoidance of tasks that require sustained mental focus.
(Attention Deficit Disorder, NCI Thesaurus)
An anomaly which often struck me in the character of my friend Sherlock Holmes was that, although in his methods of thought he was the neatest and most methodical of mankind, and although also he affected a certain quiet primness of dress, he was none the less in his personal habits one of the most untidy men that ever drove a fellow-lodger to distraction.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Nor did he seem much more at ease; when he spoke, his accent had none of its usual sedateness; and he repeated his inquiries as to the time of her having left Longbourn, and of her having stayed in Derbyshire, so often, and in so hurried a way, as plainly spoke the distraction of his thoughts.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
Your work life will be unusually busy, so that might be a welcome distraction considering all the thinking you will be doing about that one important relationship.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
I loved her at that minute to distraction.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
My mother and sisters were always about me, and I was always trying to escape them; for they worried me to distraction with their solicitude for my health and with their periodic inroads on my den, when my orderly confusion, upon which I prided myself, was turned into worse confusion and less order, though it looked neat enough to the eye.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
Spare us the enumeration! Au reste, we all know them: danger of bad example to innocence of childhood; distractions and consequent neglect of duty on the part of the attached—mutual alliance and reliance; confidence thence resulting—insolence accompanying—mutiny and general blow-up.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Teens who were reaching for something while driving increased their risk nearly sevenfold, which researchers attributed to a combination of distractions, including taking their eyes off the road and their hands off the wheel.
(Reaching for objects while driving may raise teen crash risk nearly sevenfold, National Institutes of Health)
In my January report, you and I talked about how you may want to withdraw a little and spend time alone to experiment and think without outside distraction.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
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