Deflect vs Detract - What's the difference?
deflect | detract |
To make (something) deviate from its original path.
To deviate from its original path.
(figuratively) To avoid addressing (questions, criticism, etc.).
(figuratively) To divert (attention, etc.).
* 2013 , Luke Harding and Uki Goni, Argentina urges UK to hand back Falklands and 'end colonialism'' (in ''The Guardian , 3 January 2013)[http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jan/02/argentina-britain-hand-back-falklands]
To take away; to withdraw or remove.
*{{quote-news
, year=2012
, date=May 27
, author=Nathan Rabin
, title=TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “New Kid On The Block” (season 4, episode 8; originally aired 11/12/1992)
, work=The Onion AV Club
To take credit or reputation from; to defame or decry.
* Drayton
In transitive terms the difference between deflect and detract
is that deflect is to make (something) deviate from its original path while detract is to take credit or reputation from; to defame or decry.In intransitive terms the difference between deflect and detract
is that deflect is to deviate from its original path while detract is to take away; to withdraw or remove.deflect
English
Verb
(en verb)- The Prime Minister deflected some increasingly pointed questions by claiming he had an appointment.
- Critics suggest that Fernández, an unashamed populist and nationalist, is seeking to deflect attention from social disharmony at home.
detract
English
Verb
(en verb)citation, page= , passage=The Conan O’Brien-penned half-hour has the capacity to rip our collective hearts out the way the cute, funny bad girl next door does to Bart when she reveals that her new boyfriend is Jimbo Jones, but the show keeps shying away from genuine emotion in favor of jokes that, while overwhelmingly funny, detract from the poignancy and the emotional intimacy of the episode.}}
- That calumnious critic / Detracting what laboriously we do.