distraction

noun

1. 1

   Something that distracts.

   Poking one's eye is a good distraction from a hurting toe.

   At last the Duke of Anjou arrived, dressed, as his brother said, to distraction.

   “… This is a surprise attack, and I’d no wish that the garrison, forewarned, should escape. I am sure, Lord Stranleigh, that he has been descanting on the distraction of the woods and the camp, or perhaps the metropolitan dissipation of Philadelphia, …”

2. 2

   The process of being distracted.

   We have to reduce distraction in class if we want students to achieve good results.

   We determined that the probable cause of the Tishomingo, Oklahoma, collision was the teen driver’s acceleration through the intersection after briefly slowing without stopping, due to distraction from having five teen passengers in the car, limited driving experience, and likely impairment from cannabis.

3. 3

   Perturbation; disorder; disturbance; confusion.

   It's true that the Copernican Systeme introduceth distraction in the universe of Aristotle.

4. 4

   Mental disarray; a deranged state of mind; insanity.

   The incessant nightmares drove him to distraction.

   […] if he speak the words of an oath in a strange language, thinking they signify something else, or if he spake in his sleep, or deliration, or distraction, it is no oath, and so not obligatory.

5. 5

   archaicTraction so exerted as to separate surfaces normally opposed.

Forms

plural

distractions