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To draw apart or away; to divide; to disjoin. A city . . . distracted from itself. Fuller.

Mentally disordered; unsettled; mad. My distracted mind. Pope.

Disjointedly; madly. Shak.

A state of being distracted; distraction. Bp. Hall.

One who, or that which, distracts away.

Distracting. [R.] Heywood.

Capable of being drawn aside or distracted.

Tending or serving to draw apart.

Tending or serving to distract.

The act of distracting; a drawing apart; separation. To create distractions among us. Bp. Burnet.

Distractive. [Obs.]

Causing perplexity; distracting. "Distractive thoughts." Bp. Hall.

esent; abstraction (of mind); as, absence of mind. "Reflecting on the little absences and distractions of mankind." Addison. To conquer that abstraction which is called absence. Landor.

To occupy or engage the attention of; to lose in deep thought; to absorb; also, to distract; to bewilder. [Obs.] Camillus set upon the Gauls when they were amused in receiving their gold. Holland. Being amused with grief, fear, and fright, he could not find the house. Fuller.

Out of one's senses; distracted; mad. [Obs.] Shak.

To rend with grief or pain; to affect deeply with sorrow; hence, to disorder; to distract; to craze. O, madam, my old hear is cracked. Shak. He thought none poets till their brains were cracked. Roscommon.

Trouble; embarrassment; distress. [Obs.] [Written also comber.] A place of much distraction and cumber. Sir H. Wotton. Sage counsel in cumber. Sir W. Scott.

A trifle which wastes time or distracts attention. Prevented from finishing them [the letters] a thousand avocations and dissipations. Swift. Dissipation of energy. Same as Degradation of energy, under Degradation.

ting or disuniting; a state of separation; disunion. It will add infinitely dissociation, distraction, and confusion of these confederate republics. Burke.

Distracted; perplexed. "Distraught twixt fear and pity." Spenser. As if thou wert distraught and mad with terror. Shak. To doubt betwixt our senses and our souls Which are the most distraught and full of pain. Mrs. Browning.