Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive & transitive verb To turn aside or cause to turn aside; bend or deviate.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To cause to turn aside; turn or bend from a right line or a regular course.
- To turn away or aside; deviate from a true course or a right line; swerve.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb To turn aside; to deviate from a right or a horizontal line, or from a proper position, course or direction; to swerve.
- transitive verb To cause to turn aside; to bend.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To
make (something)deviate from its originalpath . - verb intransitive To
deviate from its originalpath .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb draw someone's attention away from something
- verb impede the movement of (an opponent or a ball)
- verb turn aside and away from an initial or intended course
- verb prevent the occurrence of; prevent from happening
- verb turn from a straight course, fixed direction, or line of interest
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Overtly talking about “McCarthyism” or depicting a desire for transparency in govt. as somehow indicating a crypto-McCarthyite interest serves to deflect from the high and holy office attorneys too often imagine themselves holding.
The Volokh Conspiracy » Lawyers, Treason, and Deception: A Response to Andrew McCarthy 2010
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Michael B: Overtly talking about “McCarthyism” or depicting a desire for transparency in govt. as somehow indicating a crypto-McCarthyite interest serves to deflect from the high and holy office attorneys too often imagine themselves holding.
The Volokh Conspiracy » Lawyers, Treason, and Deception: A Response to Andrew McCarthy 2010
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Have you forgotten this or are the pathetic misleading and anti police stories your idea of reigniting the class war to deflect from the current ills of the New Labour Government.
Police Need Intelligence Shock « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG Inspector Gadget 2009
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Does she think if she screams "Death Panels" it will deflect from the very unflattering Vanity Fair article about her?
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The dog for the girls, the rant on Wall Street bonuses, the rumour (according to Andrew Neil) that Michelle is pregnant, rather deflect from the issues he faces.
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Meanwhile the GOP has embraced the tenets of the KKK at the core values level and all you can do is deflect from the evil that you “now” represent.
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Because all they want is attention and engagement to distract and deflect from the topic.
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McCain knows he needs to deflect from the issues to stay in the game.
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Way to deflect from the fact that his own lack of foreign policy experience has been exposed.
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Obviously, she missed it or she tried to deflect from the question ever so unsuccessfully john
Roberts: McCain grapples with major fundraising challenge 2008
vanishedone commented on the word deflect
T.H.E. on modular academic courses: 'I kept encountering a story about a molecular biologist who opted to spend a year at a university in California and had been deflected from his true calling into drug-driven self-destruction by taking an optional ceramics module.'
November 6, 2008
dailyword commented on the word deflect
House would do this a lot in order to keep Wilson from talking about his Vicodin usage or something different.
July 26, 2012