Definition of Distract

Distract

Separated; drawn asunder.

Insane; mad.

To draw apart or away; to divide; to disjoin.

To draw (the sight, mind, or attention) in different directions; to perplex; to confuse; as, to distract the eye; to distract the attention.

To agitate by conflicting passions, or by a variety of motives or of cares; to confound; to harass.

To unsettle the reason of; to render insane; to craze; to madden; -- most frequently used in the participle, distracted.

Related Definitions:

Agitate, Apart, As, Asunder, Attention, Away, By, Conflicting, Confound, Confuse, Craze, Different, Disjoin, Distract, Distracted, Divide, Draw, Drawn, Eye, Frequently, Harass, In, Insane, Mad, Madden, Mind, Most, Of, Or, Participle, Perplex, Reason, Render, Separated, Sight, The, To, Unsettle, Used, Variety

Distract Quotations

Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end.
Henry David Thoreau

Cliches about supporting the troops are designed to distract from failed policies, policies promoted by powerful special interests that benefit from war, anything to steer the discussion away from the real reasons the war in Iraq will not end anytime soon.
Ron Paul

One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals. And so when I hear about negative and false attacks, I really don't invest any energy in them, because I know who I am.
Michelle Obama

Without question, the material world and your everyday needs distract you from living meaningfully.
Menachem Mendel Schneerson

Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation.
Jean Arp

When I attack a role, be it TV, film or stage, the first thing I say is, I don't want to know anything. If it's good I don't want to hear it; if it's bad I don't want to hear it. The only thing either thing can do is distract me. I like to stay focused.
Cicely Tyson

I think that the fact that a relationship becomes public is a bit of a bummer. Because it can distract from the real reason why you're together, which is that you just like each other.
Chris Martin

I've been online doing all kinds of research and that seems to be the constant criticism, that Aibileen's accent was just too thick. And for me, I don't want anything to distract from the character.
Viola Davis

President Obama is traveling around the country, proposing a stimulus bill that has already failed once. Instead of having an honest discussion about whether or not a plan that already failed once will fail again, the establishment would rather distract the American people with gossip.
Alveda King

When I am rehearsing for a play, I try to read nothing that might distract my concentration from the work in progress.
Mercedes McCambridge

The pictures are created by the listener, with a little help from the broadcaster. The pictures are perfect. If you're showing pictures, different things in that picture can distract from the spoken word.
Bob Edwards

It's such a psychological and mental game, golf, that the smallest wrong thing at the wrong time can distract you from what you're trying to achieve.
Lee Westwood

I'd distract myself until finally it was a combination of things. The show was over and I had time on my hands. I had taken time and played and just relaxed.
Paul Reiser

It's also a more personal medium. It seems to go directly to one's brain. There are no pictures to distract.
Bob Edwards

It is sad that the Republican leadership is not as interested as they say they are in protecting the institution of marriage as they are in waging a campaign to divide and distract the American people from the real issues that need to be addressed.
Kendrick Meek

President Bush and his administration have tried to pull the wool over our eyes and distract the public from this possibly illegal domestic spying scandal.
Ellen Tauscher

For disorder obstructs: besides, it doth disgust life, distract the appetities, and yield no true relish to the senses.
Margaret Cavendish

Everything about filmmaking tries to distract you from that first fine rapturous vision you have of the film.
Ted Kotcheff

The Bush Administration claims there is a Social Security crisis only to distract Americans from its serious mismanagement of the federal budget.
Mark Dayton

More Distract Quotations

Distract Translations

distract in Dutch is verstrooien
distract in French is distrayons, distraient, distrayez, distraire
distract in German is ablenken
distract in Italian is distrarre, disordinare
distract in Norwegian is distrahere, avlede
distract in Spanish is confundir, dispersar, apartar, distraer
distract in Swedish is dra bort, distrahera

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