Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Inattentive or preoccupied, especially because of anxiety.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Abstracted; absent-minded; inattentive.
  • In French law, awarded to another. See distraction, 9.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Absent-minded; lost in thought; abstracted.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective absent-minded, troubled, distracted

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective having the attention diverted especially because of anxiety

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, past participle of distraire, to distract, from Latin distrahere; see distract.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French distrait.

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Examples

Comments

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  • He was continually drifting into reveries, bstracted, distrait.

    - Frank Norris, The Octopus, ch. 5

    August 15, 2008

  • JM is distrait ....................................................................................... see!

    September 22, 2010

  • Dr, Meade used this word when he was talking with his wife when she was pestering him about wanting to know about what Belle Whatling's house looked like.

    July 28, 2012