See the Dictionary Definition 
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sidetracked
Verb
-
Braun is no stranger to accent work, having deviated from his normal speaking voice to play comedian Andy Kaufman in 2024's Saturday Night and an Australian character for 2016's Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.—
Tommy McArdle,
PEOPLE,
7 May 2026 -
Since then, Davidson hasn’t deviated from his plan.—
Scott Powers,
New York Times,
16 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
Crisis was quickly averted before any photos were taken as the milliner reoriented his creation atop her head.—
Kristen Tauer,
Footwear News,
7 May 2026
-
Crisis averted, Tommy agrees to stay at Ludlow.—
Erin Qualey,
Vulture,
27 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
The Minnesota Attorney General's Office said a temporary restraining order is in place to protect the nonprofit assets from being diverted.—
Ashley Grams,
CBS News,
6 May 2026
-
Traffic was being diverted onto Blackwell Road.—
Kansas City Star,
Kansas City Star,
4 May 2026
Verb
-
But the following year, as the pandemic wore on and crime rates ticked up, the politics of criminal justice in the city shifted toward law-and-order anxiety, even as new waves of COVID infection struck the jails.—
Molly Fischer,
New Yorker,
11 May 2026
-
Securing the Financial Perimeter The arms race between criminal networks and financial institutions has permanently shifted the baseline of payment processing.—
Ethan Stone,
USA Today,
11 May 2026
Verb
-
For each handball, the ball first deflected from the body of, respectively, Bayern’s Alphonso Davies and Arsenal’s Ben White before contacting an arm which was not held tight to the side of their bodies.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
4 May 2026
-
Hampus Lindholm collected it and sent a blind backhand pass back to David Pastrnak at the blue line that Josh Doan got his stick on and deflected it out of the zone.—
Steve Conroy,
Boston Herald,
2 May 2026
Verb
-
While the chipmaker — and the world's most valuable company — continues to prosper and is expected to show revenue growth of 70% this fiscal year, Wall Street has moved elsewhere, piling into businesses that were hardly visible in the initial years of the artificial intelligence buildout.—
Samantha Subin,
CNBC,
8 May 2026
-
Researchers tested the system in a maze-navigation experiment where the robot moved autonomously without cameras.—
Neetika Walter,
Interesting Engineering,
8 May 2026
Verb
-
Sometimes it’s measured in lives redirected.—
Mike Bianchi,
The Orlando Sentinel,
6 May 2026
-
In Colorado, this has already redirected $900 million from highway expansion toward bus rapid transit.—
Catherina Gioino,
Fortune,
4 May 2026
Verb
-
Just months after the unit started, one officer in an unmarked police car spotted a man on a dirtbike and swerved across a yellow line into oncoming traffic, hitting the motorcyclist head-on and sending him flying.—
Eric Umansky,
ProPublica,
11 May 2026
-
Zack Kelly pitched himself to the edge of disaster, then masterfully swerved out of harm’s way.—
Gabrielle Starr,
Boston Herald,
7 May 2026
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Cite this Entry
“Sidetracked.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sidetracked. Accessed 14 May. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
