把心思扯開的東西
同一個「拉扯」的動作，差別在力道：輕輕一扯是分心，扯到極限是快抓狂，扯得舒服則成了消遣。
something that distracts · noun · B1
Anything that pulls your attention off the thing you are trying to do.
分心的事物；干擾
核心畫面
Picture your attention as a beam pointed at one thing, and something off to the side that keeps tugging it away. A distraction is whatever does the tugging. Pull hard enough and long enough and the mind is not just off-track but frayed — which is the picture behind being driven to distraction. Pull gently and , and the same word once meant a nice way to pass the time.
可以想成：注意力是一道打在某件事上的光束，旁邊有東西一直把它扯開。distraction 就是那個「扯」的東西。如果…更多收起
可以想成：注意力是一道打在某件事上的光束，旁邊有東西一直把它扯開。distraction 就是那個「扯」的東西。如果扯得夠用力、夠久，人不只是分心，而是被拉到快要撐不住——這正是 drive somebody to distraction 背後的畫面。而如果扯得溫和又愉快，同一個字在早期英文裡也曾用來指「打發時間的樂子」。From the word’s history
Distraction comes from Latin distrahere, 'to draw in different directions' (dis- 'away' + trahere 'to draw'). In the 1590s it named 'a drawing of the mind in different directions'; around 1600 the stronger sense of mental disturbance gave us driven to distraction, and by the 1610s the milder 'thing that diverts the mind' had appeared.
distraction 來自拉丁文 distrahere「往不同方向拉」（dis-「離開」＋ trahere「拉」）。1590 年代它指的是「心被往不同方向拉扯」；大約 1600 年出現了程度更強的「心神大亂」，也就是 driven to distraction 的來源；到 1610 年代，才有比較輕的「把心思引開的東西」。三個意思都在同一條拉扯線上，差別只在被拉的力道。
Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com), entry "distraction"
One branch
原始詞典資料5 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
distractionnoun/dɪsˈtɹæk.ʃən/
- 1
Something that distracts.
- Poking one's eye is a good distraction from a hurting toe.
- At last the Duke of Anjou arrived, dressed, as his brother said, to distraction.
- 2
The process of being distracted.
- We have to reduce distraction in class if we want students to achieve good results.
- The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about "creating compelling content", or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing",[…]and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.
- 3
Perturbation; disorder; disturbance; confusion.
- It's true that the Copernican Systeme introduceth distraction in the universe of Aristotle.
- 4
Mental disarray; a deranged state of mind; insanity.
- The incessant nightmares drove him to distraction.
- […] if he speak the words of an oath in a strange language, thinking they signify something else, or if he spake in his sleep, or deliration, or distraction, it is no oath, and so not obligatory.
- 5
archaicmedicinesciencesTraction so exerted as to separate surfaces normally opposed.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。