as in turns
to change the course or direction of (something)
the wind deflected the Frisbee just as I was about to lunge for it
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of deflects
As a result, Palace’s centre-back leaps higher than Maximilian Kilman and his header deflects off the West Ham defender, onto the bar, but Mateta is in position to score from the rebound.
—
Ahmed Walid, New York Times, 24 Sep. 2025
Vogt, though, deflects credit to his players.
—John Perrotto, Forbes.com, 31 Aug. 2025
Ahmed Walid, New York Times, 24 Sep. 2025
Vogt, though, deflects credit to his players.
—John Perrotto, Forbes.com, 31 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for deflects
Verb
-
Penn State’s season turns into a nightmare This is an unfathomable result for the Nittany Lions, who just eight days ago were considered national championship contenders.—
Cameron Teague Robinson,
New York Times,
5 Oct. 2025
-
Pine straw turns brown fairly quickly.—
Brandee Gruener,
Southern Living,
5 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
Because that pendulum swings the other way, too.—
Mike Fleming Jr,
Deadline,
2 Oct. 2025
-
Libra season swings you back and forth, packing your schedule.—
USA TODAY,
USA Today,
22 Sep. 2025
Verb
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One project consists of a bioreactor that diverts water from the fields to filter out nutrients.—
Karl Schneider,
IndyStar,
25 Sep. 2025
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This invites empathy, diverts the conversation toward healing rather than fault-finding and helps both partners challenge the automatic assumption that blame is the only way to respond.—
Mark Travers,
Forbes.com,
15 Sep. 2025
Verb
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So unless Benito uncharacteristically whips out a slate of cover songs, his set will be entirely in Spanish.—
Maya Georgi,
Rolling Stone,
29 Sep. 2025
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So the magnetic field has to stay synchronized with the increasing mass of the particle, ramping up in strength as the particle whips around.—
Paul Sutter,
Space.com,
23 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Li explained that progress has slowed as Nio redirects resources toward developing its fifth-generation swap stations, supporting multiple battery sizes for Nio and its sub-brands Onvo and Firefly.—
Sujita Sinha,
Interesting Engineering,
6 Oct. 2025
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Once scanned, the code redirects them to fraudulent websites that ask for sensitive personal information, such as banking information, credit card numbers or login credentials.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
9 Sep. 2025
Verb
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While the series veers more toward the action side of things, stealth is also incredibly important.—
George Yang,
Vulture,
3 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Deflects.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/deflects. Accessed 9 Oct. 2025.
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