Preoccupy vs Captivate - What's the difference?
preoccupy | captivate |
To distract; to occupy or draw attention elsewhere.
To attract and hold interest and attention of; charm.
* Washington Irving
*, chapter=3
, title= (obsolete) To take prisoner; to capture; to subdue.
* Shakespeare
* Glanvill
As verbs the difference between preoccupy and captivate
is that preoccupy is to distract; to occupy or draw attention elsewhere while captivate is to attract and hold interest and attention of; charm.preoccupy
English
Verb
(en-verb)- The father tried to preoccupy the child with his keys.
captivate
English
Verb
(captivat)- small landscapes of captivating loveliness
The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.” He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.}}
- Their woes whom fortune captivates .
- 'Tis a greater credit to know the ways of captivating Nature, and making her subserve our purposes, than to have learned all the intrigues of policy.