distrait


Also found in: Thesaurus.
Related to distrait: corrigible

dis·trait

 (dĭ-strā′)
adj.
Inattentive or preoccupied, especially because of anxiety: "When she did not occupy her accustomed chair at the seminar, Freud felt uneasy and distrait" (Times Literary Supplement).

[Middle English, from Old French, past participle of distraire, to distract, from Latin distrahere; see distract.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

distrait

(dɪˈstreɪ; French distrɛ)
adj
absent-minded; abstracted
[C18: from French, from distraire to distract]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

dis•trait

(dɪˈstreɪ)

adj.
distracted; absent-minded.
[1740–50; < French < Latin distractus; see distract]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.

distrait

, distraught - Distrait means "absent-minded as a result of apprehension, worry, etc."—while distraught means "agitated" and "bewildered, distracted."
See also related terms for worry.
Farlex Trivia Dictionary. © 2012 Farlex, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Adj.1.distrait - having the attention diverted especially because of anxiety
inattentive - showing a lack of attention or care; "inattentive students"; "an inattentive babysitter"
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

distrait

adjective
So lost in thought as to be unaware of one's surroundings:
Idiom: a million miles away.
The American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Translations

distrait

[dɪsˈtreɪ] ADJ (liter) → distraído
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005
References in classic literature ?
His manner, too, was singularly distrait: he neither responded to their salutations nor so much as looked at them, but walked slowly across the room in the light of the failing fire and opening the front door passed out into the darkness.
The result of the long strain was seen later in the afternoon, when he sat locked within the turret-room before the still baffling trunk, distrait, listless and yet agitated, sunk in a settled gloom.
While she and Arthur (who had arrived before me) supplied the children with tea and cake, I tried to engage the Earl in conversation: but he was restless and distrait, and we made little progress.
Nevertheless, she was just at the moment, a little DISTRAIT. She was watching the brilliant scene with a certain air of abstraction, as though her interest in it was, after all, an impersonal thing.
He massaged his right ear with the sole of his left foot in a somewhat distrait manner.
He is silent and distrait. His nerves have been strangely shaken by that sound upon the moor.
At one of the tables sat Paul, calm and distrait. From across the room Jeanne stared freezingly.
So distrait was he and so random his answers, that the wood man took to whistling, and soon branched off upon the track to Burley, leaving Alleyne upon the main Christchurch road.
You may remember that I was distrait, and remained sitting after you had all alighted.
Holmes was curiously distrait, and we walked up and down the garden path for some time in silence.
The opening lacks fantasy, the hero mildly miffed not wildly distrait - whereas Chung (with the Bastille Opera Orchestra on DG) finds edge-of-a-nervousbreakdown intensity.
On se demande si l'Etat, lui-meme, ne se distrait par les bouffonneries amusantes de ce virtuose, au point d'ignorer de le demettre de ses fonctions pour ses espiegleries attentatoires aux regles de la constitution et aux droits de la population.