1. prevent (someone) from concentrating on something: "don't allow noise to distract you from your work"
▪ divert (attention) from something: "it was another attempt to distract attention from the truth"
▪ divert one's attention from something unpleasant by doing something different or more pleasurable: "I tried to distract myself by concentrating on Jane"
▪ perplex and bewilder:"horror and doubt distract His troubl'd thoughts"
Word Originlate Middle English (also in the sense ‘pull in different directions’): from Latin distract- ‘drawn apart’, from the verb distrahere, from dis- ‘apart’ + trahere ‘to draw, drag’.