distract

verb
/dɪˈstɹækt/

To divert the attention of.

Example

“The crowd was distracted by a helicopter hovering over the stadium when the only goal of the game was scored.”

Other meanings

To divert (attention).
To make crazy or insane; to drive to distraction.

Related words

distractable
distractee
distracter
distractful
distractive
distractor

Example sentences

“Try listening to a book to distract yourself.”
Tatoeba · \N · CC0
“You need to distract yourself.”
Tatoeba · shekitten · CC0

Word history

From Latin "distractus".

Where this comes from

This definition is adapted from “distract” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; example sentences are from Tatoeba, credited to their authors above, published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.