dis·trac·tion / disˈtrakshən/ • n. 1. a thing that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else: the company found passenger travel a distraction from the main business of moving freight. ∎  a diversion or recreation: there are plenty of distractions such as sailing.2. extreme agitation of the mind or emotions: he knew she was nervous by her uncharacteristic air of distraction.PHRASES: drive someone to distraction annoy someone intensely: he was driven to distraction by the pain in his shoulder.to distraction (in hyperbolic use) intensely: she loved him to distraction.

193. Distraction

1. Porlock a “person from Porlock” interrupted Coleridge while he was recollecting the dream on which he based “Kubla Khan”. [Br. Lit.: Poems of Coleridge in Magill IV, 756]

Divination (See OMEN .)

distraction (dis-trak-shŏn) n.
1. (in orthopaedics) increasing the distance between two joint surfaces or the two ends of a divided bone.

2. (in therapy) a diversional therapy that can enable procedures to be carried out with the patient in a state of relaxation.