Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To draw or take away; divert.
- intransitive verb To reduce the value, importance, or quality of something. Often used with from.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To take away; withdraw; abate: now always with a quantitative term as direct object, followed by from: as, the defect detracts little from the intrinsic value.
- To depreciate the reputation or merit of; disparage; belittle; defame.
- Synonyms Decry, Depreciate, Detract from, etc. See
decry . - To take away a part; hence, specifically, to take away reputation or merit: followed by from.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb To take away a part or something, especially from one's credit; to lessen reputation; to derogate; to defame; -- often with
from . - transitive verb To take away; to withdraw.
- transitive verb To take credit or reputation from; to defame.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To take away; to
withdraw orremove . - verb transitive To take
credit orreputation from; todefame ordecry .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb take away a part from; diminish
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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The mere fact they've already beaten the Cardinals this season by 28 and 39 points should not detract from the appeal.
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Another Zen point — that adverse conditions do not detract from the fact of you.
Shambhala SunSpace » John Tarrant – Escape Arts in Delusionville 2009
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In the same way that a true movie fan won't go to Dark Knight or Iron Man in the first week because the theater will be crowded and he or she runs the risk of having rude people make noise during the broadcast which would detract from the experience?
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I hope, though, that this point doesn't detract from the overall argument of my post.
I want you to stop stalking "overweight" women. - Feministing 2009
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DIALOGUE: Dialogue can enhance or detract from the story in a major way.
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Media presence can detract from the performance and the children's experience due to lights and crowded conditions.
Entertainment guidelines, application and event criteria 2010
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Although that will detract from the street cred of that bearded homeless person look he cultivates.
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Let's not detract from the issue at hand, a birth certificate has yet to be produced.
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It is because of their commitment and refusal to detract from the cause that the interim government has been forced to gag the media.
Global Voices in English » Fiji: Bloggers debate media censorship 2009
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(Not to detract from the poster -- very cool, and I wish I had the spare computers to do it, I'm just disinclined to purchase one specifically for use in the kitchen .. at least, not in this shithole apartment) mgpcoe
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