divert/distract attention

idiom

: to try to keep people from noticing or thinking about something
He was trying to divert/distract attention away from his friend's mistake.

Examples of divert/distract attention in a Sentence

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Three men staged a seizure to divert attention and steal a pair of the puppies — valued at over $8,000 — from Perfect Pets in Centennial, Colorado, a city about 14 miles south of downtown Denver, on Friday. Matt Lavietes, NBC News, 25 Feb. 2025 Some prisoners’ rights advocates have accused the striking officers of trying to distract attention from their colleagues’ role in Mr. Brooks’s death. Jay Root, New York Times, 24 Feb. 2025 This is because teams test with different fuel loads and tire compounds, and some might even engage in sandbagging—a tactic where drivers deliberately lap slower to keep their true pace and potential under wraps to divert attention from certain features on the car or dodge unnecessary hype. Yara Elshebiny, Forbes, 22 Feb. 2025 One prisoner rights group has accused the strikers of trying to divert attention from the death of Brooks, The New York Times reported. Dan Perry, Newsweek, 20 Feb. 2025 See All Example Sentences for divert/distract attention

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Cite this Entry

“Divert/distract attention.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/divert%2Fdistract%20attention. Accessed 10 Mar. 2025.

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