Search Result for "distraction": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (4)

1. mental turmoil;
- Example: "he drives me to distraction"

2. an obstacle to attention;

3. an entertainment that provokes pleased interest and distracts you from worries and vexations;
[syn: beguilement, distraction]

4. the act of distracting; drawing someone's attention away from something;
- Example: "conjurers are experts at misdirection"
[syn: distraction, misdirection]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Distraction \Dis*trac"tion\, n. [L. distractio: cf. F. distraction.] 1. The act of distracting; a drawing apart; separation. [1913 Webster] To create distractions among us. --Bp. Burnet. [1913 Webster] 2. That which diverts attention; a diversion. "Domestic distractions." --G. Eliot. [1913 Webster] 3. A diversity of direction; detachment. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] His power went out in such distractions as Beguiled all species. --Shak. [1913 Webster] 4. State in which the attention is called in different ways; confusion; perplexity. [1913 Webster] That ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction. --1 Cor. vii. 35. [1913 Webster] 5. Confusion of affairs; tumult; disorder; as, political distractions. [1913 Webster] Never was known a night of such distraction. --Dryden. [1913 Webster] 6. Agitation from violent emotions; perturbation of mind; despair. [1913 Webster] The distraction of the children, who saw both their parents together, would have melted the hardest heart. --Tatler. [1913 Webster] 7. Derangement of the mind; madness. --Atterbury. Syn: Perplexity; confusion; disturbance; disorder; dissension; tumult; derangement; madness; raving; franticness; furiousness. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

distraction n 1: mental turmoil; "he drives me to distraction" 2: an obstacle to attention 3: an entertainment that provokes pleased interest and distracts you from worries and vexations [syn: beguilement, distraction] 4: the act of distracting; drawing someone's attention away from something; "conjurers are experts at misdirection" [syn: distraction, misdirection]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

99 Moby Thesaurus words for "distraction": aberration, abnormality, absentmindedness, agitation, alienation, amusement, befuddlement, bewilderment, brain damage, brainsickness, carelessness, clouded mind, confusion, craziness, daftness, dementedness, dementia, derangement, disorder, disorientation, disregard, disregardfulness, dissipation, disturbance, diversion, divertissement, entertainment, flightiness, flippancy, folie, frivolousness, furor, giddiness, heedlessness, inadvertence, inadvertency, inattention, inattentiveness, inconsideration, incuriosity, indifference, inobservance, insaneness, insanity, irrationality, levity, lightmindedness, loss of mind, loss of reason, lunacy, madness, mania, mental deficiency, mental derangement, mental disease, mental disorder, mental disturbance, mental illness, mental instability, mental sickness, mind overthrown, mindsickness, negligence, nonobservance, obliviousness, oddness, pixilation, possession, psychopathy, queerness, rabidness, reasonlessness, recreation, regardlessness, senselessness, shallowness, shattered mind, sick mind, sickness, strangeness, superficiality, thoughtlessness, unalertness, unawareness, unbalance, unbalanced mind, unconsciousness, unheedfulness, unintentiveness, unmindfulness, unobservance, unsaneness, unsound mind, unsoundness, unsoundness of mind, unwariness, unwatchfulness, upset, witlessness