How to Use distracted in a Sentence

distracted

adjective
  • If you're feeling distracted, take a break.
  • Even Jolie, in her too-brief role, seems a bit distracted.
    Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor, 3 Nov. 2021
  • But the threat of a distracted Musk may be even more worrisome.
    Matt Durot, Forbes, 5 May 2022
  • The key to this gaslighting reprobate is that the group has become distracted.
    Lance Eliot, Forbes, 10 July 2022
  • When someone feels hazy, tired and distracted, it’s called brain fog.
    Emily Mendenhall, Scientific American, 12 May 2023
  • The vast, verdant lawn is now an expanse of dirt, Ba too tired and distracted to maintain it.
    Viet Thanh Nguyen, The New Yorker, 9 Sep. 2023
  • The flights can also be voice-controlled by the (distracted) driver.
    Carlton Reid, WIRED, 18 Mar. 2024
  • Now imagine distracted drivers in monster trucks on high-speed roads in the dark.
    Emily Badger, New York Times, 11 Dec. 2023
  • These are all part of street-level crime trends designed to prey on distracted victims to grab a purse, phone or wallet and take off.
    Chris Eberhart, Fox News, 20 Mar. 2023
  • While Dalton Schultz and his value to the franchise is the topic du jour for the Cowboys, don’t become distracted.
    Dallas News, 9 Mar. 2022
  • But for distracted shoppers buying two weeks’ worth of groceries with kids in tow … well, less of a godsend.
    Christine Kilpatrick, The Mercury News, 7 Mar. 2024
  • Wood said the purpose of the bill is to prevent accidents and save lives that could be lost because of distracted drivers.
    Mike Cason | McAson@al.com, al, 22 Mar. 2023
  • The women walked in a hurried, distracted manner, some without their veils, pacing back and forth in front of the compound.
    Mohammed Naseehu Ali, The New Yorker, 25 Mar. 2024
  • Stepmother-in-law needs a handler: a family member whose job for the evening is to keep her distracted and out of your way.
    Jacobina Martin, Washington Post, 17 May 2023
  • Putin reads that as the U.S. is vulnerable and distracted.
    Bryan Schott, The Salt Lake Tribune, 15 Mar. 2022
  • If distracted driving causes a crash, you or your pet could be injured.
    Emma Janssen, Miami Herald, 22 Feb. 2024
  • Google’s data show that the web has been both a utility and an escape for Ukrainians over the past year, at once keeping them safe and distracted.
    WIRED, 14 Mar. 2023
  • There are also more instances of distracted driving when using ADAS — and why wouldn’t there be?
    Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge, 31 July 2023
  • The pressure from the sales and worries that Musk had become too distracted from running Tesla weighed heavily on the shares.
    Esha Dey, Fortune, 17 July 2023
  • But Trump, who complained in Atkinson that he has been indicted more times than Al Capone, did not sound distracted or gloomy about the prospect of spending that time in court.
    Benjamin Wallace-Wells, The New Yorker, 21 Jan. 2024
  • Detroit's rate of fatal crashes involving a distracted driver ranked No. 22 and helped keep the city out of the top spot for worst drivers.
    Tanya Wildt, Detroit Free Press, 29 Feb. 2024
  • The church choir, the writers’ workshop, her own kids, and her husband, Pat (played by Patrick Fugit as a genial, distracted dork), just aren’t raising her blood pressure enough.
    Chris Vognar, Chron, 20 Apr. 2023
  • The same cannot be said for Willis, whose distracted and empty performance as the main heavy is hard to watch after the news of his Aphasia diagnosis.
    Rene Rodriguez, Variety, 17 May 2022
  • Some cities, such as Honolulu, have even passed laws to rein in distracted pedestrians.
    Markham Heid, San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 Jan. 2024
  • Being hit by a distracted driver is my biggest fear of city walking.
    By Jenny Rough, Miami Herald, 31 Jan. 2024
  • To his credit, when not too distracted with work, Peter does try to communicate with his son.
    Peter Debruge, Variety, 7 Sep. 2022
  • One of the foxes became distracted and started sniffing around.
    Carlyn Kranking, Smithsonian Magazine, 5 Jan. 2024
  • Many major cities in mainland China have equipped crosswalks with LED lights that shine up from the road to keep distracted jaywalkers alert.
    Dylan Butts, NBC News, 25 July 2022
  • How many times has an entrepreneur pitched the traditional deck to an investor who is on the phone or distracted?
    Neil Senturia, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Nov. 2023
  • Nadia slips into class late, looking distracted and scrolling through her phone behind her book.
    Sara Netzley, EW.com, 9 Mar. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'distracted.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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