as in distracted
to draw the attention or mind to something else
numerous typos in the text detract the reader's attention from the novel's intricate plot
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Recent Examples of detracted
For Loeffler, a 50-year-old father of three kids, those ever-expanding duties demanded too much time and detracted too much attention from the objects of his sports obsessions.
—
Brooks Kubena, New York Times, 25 Aug. 2025
Brooks Kubena, New York Times, 25 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for detracted
Verb
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No smear campaign distracted them.—
Shania Russell,
Entertainment Weekly,
7 Sep. 2025
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Toward the end of the first set and beginning of the second, Anisimova appeared distracted by the lights and the roof, which were closed due to heavy rain in New York.—
Adam Zagoria,
Forbes.com,
6 Sep. 2025
Verb
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The incident caused a lengthy closure of southbound lanes of I-15 as the shooting was investigated, with vehicles initially being diverted to SR-163 on Friday evening.—
Karen Kucher,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
1 Sep. 2025
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While the process looks different today, and much is diverted to more modern structures like shopping malls, water diversion in places such as Maui used to be laid out naturally flowing from the mountains to the ocean in land division called ahupuaʻa.—
Jessica Rendall,
Space.com,
1 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Detracted.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/detracted. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.
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