DISTRACT Copy link • DISTRACTdistrahere (draw in different directions; hence, IMPROP., of dissipating the thoughts and perplexing the mind by presenting different objects to them; e.g., alicujus industriam in plura studia; animum in contrarias sententias): aliquem distinere (to keep apart; hence, to prevent the mind from concentrating itself, as it were, on what it would like to do). (The words are found in this connection and order.) distinere et divellere: distringere (by turning the attention to more than one object at once): to be distracted by important business of various kinds, multis et magnis negotiis distentum esse: to send Hannibal to distract the attention of the Romans, Hannibalem mittere - ad distringendos Romanos (Liv. 35, 18): to be distracted by sorrow, distineri et divelli dolore (Cic.): occupations of a distracting nature, occupationes (as Plin., Ep., 6, 15, 1): to distract anybody’s thought from his grief, animum alicujus a curis or a sollicitudine abducere; aliquem oblectare (to try to produce feelings of a pleasant nature in order to counteract any unpleasant ones). To make mad, in insaniam adigere aliquem.