distraction

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

• noun The act of distracting, or the condition of being distracted.
• noun Something that makes it difficult to pay attention or that draws attention away from familiar or everyday concerns.
• noun Mental or emotional disturbance; agitation or confusion.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun In surgery, the act of pulling upon the segments of a limb so as to cause a separation of the opposing joint-surfaces.
• noun The act of drawing or the state of being drawn apart; separation.
• noun A drawing away of the mind from one point or course to another or others; diversion of thought or feeling into a different channel or toward different objects.
• noun A drawing of the mind in different directions; mental confusion arising from diverse or opposing considerations; perplexity; bewilderment: as, the distraction caused by a multitude of questions or of cares.
• noun Confusion of affairs; tumult; disorder: as, political distractions.
• noun Violent mental excitement, or extreme agony of mind, simulating madness in its tendencies or outward exhibition; despairing perturbation: as, this toothache drives me to distraction.
• noun A state of disordered reason; frenzy; insanity; madness.
• noun A cause of diversion or of bewilderment, as of the attention or the mind; something that distracts, in any sense: as, the distractions of gayety or of business; labor is often a distraction from gloomy thoughts.
• noun In Greek grammar, the dialectic or poetical use of two similar vowels identical in pronunciation, or differing only in quantity, for a single long vowel in the ordinary Greek form: as, φόως for φῶς, ὁρόω for ὁρῶ, κράατος for κρᾶτος,κληηδών for κληδών
• noun In French-Canadian law, the divesting of the right to costs from the client or other person presumptively or ordinarily entitled, and the declaration of it to belong to the attorney, guardian, or other person equitably entitled.—
• noun A confusing division or course; a misleading separation or detachment of parts.
• noun Synonyms Derangement, aberration of mind, delirium, mania.

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

• noun The act of distracting; a drawing apart; separation.
• noun That which diverts attention; a diversion.
• noun obsolete A diversity of direction; detachment.
• noun State in which the attention is called in different ways; confusion; perplexity.
• noun Confusion of affairs; tumult; disorder.
• noun Agitation from violent emotions; perturbation of mind; despair.
• noun Derangement of the mind; madness.

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

• noun Something that distracts.
• noun The process of being distracted.
• noun Perturbation; disorder; disturbance; confusion.
• noun Mental disorder; a deranged state of mind; insanity.

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

• noun mental turmoil
• noun an entertainment that provokes pleased interest and distracts you from worries and vexations
• noun the act of distracting; drawing someone's attention away from something
• noun an obstacle to attention