When something is distracting, it pulls your eyes, ears, or thoughts away from what you were trying to do, so that thing no longer has your full mind. A phone buzzing on the table, a television in the next room, a pen tapping — these keep calling you over. People also stretch it to feelings and people: a strong perfume, a pretty view, or someone you cannot stop noticing can all be called distracting. It is everyday English. Teachers and parents use it a lot. Though actually, the extra thing does not have to be loud or bright; even a small, interesting thing can do it when your attention is already thin. As a verb form it is simply the -ing of distract: “Stop distracting me.” As an adjective it names the quality: “a distracting noise.”