as in distracted
to draw the attention or mind to something else
the sudden noise just threw me off completely, and I missed my shot
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Recent Examples of threw off
That did not happen in my house, where the workdays were long, everyone’s calendars were packed and a bad cold threw off our schedule for a week.
—
Katia Hetter, CNN Money, 3 Nov. 2025
Horton threw off flat ground on Friday and Saturday before the playoffs started and had hoped to throw from the mound last Sunday.
—Sahadev Sharma, New York Times, 4 Oct. 2025
Katia Hetter, CNN Money, 3 Nov. 2025
Horton threw off flat ground on Friday and Saturday before the playoffs started and had hoped to throw from the mound last Sunday.
—Sahadev Sharma, New York Times, 4 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for threw off
Verb
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This is a president who is distracted by things that don't matter to the American people at a moment where the American people are in crisis.—
NBC news,
NBC news,
11 Jan. 2026
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Even the most emotionally invested of us can get distracted.—
Stuart Berman,
Pitchfork,
9 Jan. 2026
Verb
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In an earlier social media post, the CHP office said traffic was being diverted to I-15 northbound or the I-15 southbound, and that motorists should plan alternate routes.—
Paris Barraza,
USA Today,
15 Jan. 2026
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Chinese tourism to Japan has been diverted to South Korea, with the latter country receiving a boom in visitors from China since November.—
Miranda Jeyaretnam,
Time,
13 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Threw off.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/threw%20off. Accessed 22 Jan. 2026.
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