喜樂美語
  1. 1vB2/dɪˈstrækt/使分心

    to take someone's attention away from something by making them look at or listen to something else.

    示範例句 · Example

    Don't distract your father while he's driving.

    逐字不要使你的父親分心當他正在開車時。

    「distract」是「把別人的注意力拉走」：對方本來在專心，某個聲音或畫面讓他去看／聽別的東西。核心畫面可以想成「把注意力拉開」。它跟 interrupt（插話打斷）、disturb／bother（去打擾正在忙的人）不一樣——distract 特別指讓眼睛或耳朵去追別的東西。常見：distract somebody from something、get easily distracted。

    常見搭配

    • distract somebody from something

      使某人從某事分心

      to take someone's attention away from a task or thought

      Please don't distract me from my homework.

    • distract attention (from something)

      分散／轉移注意力（離開某事）

      to make people look at or think about something else

      Funny stickers on her folder distracted attention from the messy notes inside.

    • easily distracted

      容易分心的

      quickly losing attention because of other sights or sounds

      Leo is easily distracted by every sound in the classroom.

    • get distracted

      分心；被拉走注意力

      to stop giving attention because something else pulls you away

      I must not get distracted from the task in hand.

    • try to distract somebody / yourself

      設法讓某人／自己分心（轉移注意）

      to deliberately pull attention onto something else

      She played a quiet game to try to distract herself before the show.

    意思相近

    divertsidetrackdraw away

    意思相反

    focusconcentrate

core核心畫面

Picture a child working on homework when a phone lights up on the table. The eyes go one way, the mind follows, and the homework is left behind. Distract is that pulling of attention off its track — someone or something takes the beam of attention and swings it somewhere else.

可以想成：小孩正在寫作業，桌上的手機忽然亮起來。眼睛先過去，心跟著過去，作業就被丟在後面了。distract 講的就是「注意力被拉離原本的軌道」——有人或有東西把那道注意力的光束抓過去，轉到別的地方。

From the word’s history

Distract comes from Latin distrahere, 'to draw in different directions' (dis- 'away' + trahere 'to draw, pull'). The picture inside the word is literally a pulling apart, which is why English keeps saying that attention is pulled or drawn away rather than simply lost.

distract 來自拉丁文 distrahere「往不同方向拉」（dis-「離開」＋ trahere「拉」）。字裡面本來就是一個「被拉開」的畫面，所以英文講注意力時才會說它是被 pulled away、drawn away（被拉走），而不是單純「不見了」——注意力永遠是被某個東西拉過去的。

Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com), entry "distraction"

同家族的字

過去式 distracted過去分詞 distracted-ing distracting三單 distracts

意思相近

divertsidetrackdraw away

意思相反

focusconcentrate

原始詞典資料5 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。

distractverb/dɪˈstɹækt/

  • 1

    To divert the attention of.

    • The crowd was distracted by a helicopter hovering over the stadium when the only goal of the game was scored.
    • While Gunners boss Arsene Wenger had warned his players against letting the pre-match festivities distract them from the task at hand, they clearly struggled for fluency early on.
  • 2

    To divert (attention).

    • It is recorded in the Talmud that there was no water organ [...] at the Temple, because of its sweet and powerful voice which was able to distract attention from the traditional instruments.
  • 3

    To make crazy or insane; to drive to distraction.

    • By Heav’ns, ſuch Virtues, join’d with ſuch Succeſs, Diſtract my very Soul: Our Father’s Fortune Wou’d almoſt tempt us to renounce his Precepts.

distractadj/dɪˈstɹækt/

  • 1

    obsoleteDrawn asunder; separated.

  • 2

    obsoleteInsane, mad.

    • Ol[ivia]. […] Fetch Maluolio hither, / And yet alas, novv I remember me, / They ſay poore Gentleman, he's much diſtract. […] Did he vvrite this? / Clo[wn]. I [aye] Madame. / Du[ke Orsino]. This ſauours not much of diſtraction.
    • Alone ſhee beeing left the ſpoyle of loue and death, / In labour of her griefe outrageouſly diſtract, / The utmoſt of her ſpleene on her falſe Lord to act […]

摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。