Deflect

Definitions: Deflect

Deflect

Verb

1. Prevent the occurrence of; prevent from happening; "Let's avoid a confrontation"; "head off a confrontation"; "avert a strike".

2. Turn from a straight course , fixed direction, or line of interest.

3. Turn aside.

4. Draw someone's attention away from something; "The thief distracted the bystanders"; "He deflected his competitors".

5. Impede the movement of (an opponent or a ball), as in sports or fights; "block an attack".

Date "deflect" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1258. (references)

Synonyms: Deflect

Synonyms: avert (v), avoid (v), bend (v), block (v), debar (v), deviate (v), distract (v), fend off (v), head off (v), obviate (v), parry (v), stave off (v), turn away (v), ward off (v). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Curvature	Render curved; Adjective: flex, bend, curve, incurvate; inflect; deflect, scatter; refract (light); crook; turn, round, arch, arcuate, arch over, concamerate; bow, curl, recurve, frizzle.
Deviation	Intervert; deflect; divert, divert from its course; put on a new scent, shift, shunt, draw aside, crook, warp.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Domain

Usage

Screenplays

Do you always deflect jokes with personal questions? (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit; writing credit: Ervin Iunapuu)

Powerful enough to even deflect the path of a bullet - at long range, or so Q claims (Live and Let Die; writing credit: Tom Mankiewicz)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	Personal Shielding to Deflect Hostility (Book & Cassette) (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Turtle excluder device (TED) manufactured by Saunders Marine Machine Shop. The oval metal ring and bars deflect the turtles. The cut in the netting is where the trap door will be placed. The bars force a turtle to the trap door which will open allowing the turtle to go free.Credit: Fisheries.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Author	Quotation
Karl Menninger	To "know thyself" must mean to know the malignancy of one's own instincts and to know, as well, one's power to deflect it.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Economic History	Lithuania	Together with Soviet partisans, supporters of independence put up a resistance movement to deflect Nazi recruitment of Lithuanians to the German army. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

"Deflect" is generally used as a lexical verb (infinitive) -- approximately 92.22% of the time. "Deflect" is used about 167 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Lexical Verb (infinitive)	92.22%	154	25,326
Lexical Verb (base form)	5.39%	9	117,287
Noun (singular)	2.4%	4	175,879
Total	100.00%	167	N/A

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "deflect"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Afrikaan		afwyk (aberrate, deviate, diverge, turn, wander). (various references)

Albanian		thyhem (break, break off, comb, crash, dilapidate, go to pieces, snap), shmangem (circumvent, depart, deviate, diverge, dodge, duck, escape, eschew, fence, fend off, fight shy of, forbear, funk, give a wide berth, glance, jink, jump, keep one's distance, leapfrog, Miss, Parry, refrain, shirk, shun, sidestep, steer clear of, tergiversate, wander), shmang (avert, avoid, bypass, elude, evade, fend off, help, obviate, shun, ward off), ndërroj drejtim (change, turn), mënjanoj (avert, avoid, depart, eliminate, elude, leave out, move aside, remove, save, shunt, stave off, store, store up, suspend, thrift, translocate, turn aside, uncurtain, ward off). (various references)

Arabic		‏إنحرف (astrict, depart, deviate, deviate from, diverge, divert, drift, incline, jibe, jump, nose, pervert, sidetrack, skew, slew, slue, squint, stray, swerve, swing, turn, veer), ‏إنعطف (detour, turn, turn around, turn the corner, wheel, wind). (various references)

Bulgarian		отклонявам (abduct, avert, bend, call off, detract, deviate, disincline, divagate, divert, fence off, head off, put off, shunt, siphon off, stave off, swerve, throw down, throw off, turn aside, turn off, wave away), отплесвам (distract), обръщам се навътре, пречупвам се, прегъвам се. (various references)

Chinese		偏转 (Deflected, Deflecting). (various references)

Czech		vychýlit, odklonit se (digress), odklonit (divert), odchýlit (divert, swerve, turn away, warp), odboèit (branch off, decline, deviate, digress, run off, stray, strike off). (various references)

Dutch		afwýken (aberrate, deviate, diverge, turn, wander). (various references)

Esperanto		flankeniĝi (diverge, wander). (various references)

Farsi		منحرف کردن (Alienate, Bend, Calloff, Divert, Pervert, Shunt, Swerve, Warp, Wring), کج کردن (Bend, Contort, Crook, Distort, Hook, Incline, Inflect, List, Slant, Strain, Tilt, Top). (various references)

Finnish		horjuttaa (cause . . to totter, cause to waver, deflect a person from his course, shake, sway). (various references)

French		dévier (deviate), détourner (deter), dériver (derive, to derive), faire dévier (deviate). (various references)

Frisian		ôfwike (aberrate, deviate, diverge, turn, wander). (various references)

German		parieren (fence, Parry, rein in, to parry), beugen (bend, conjugate, decline, diffract, inflect, submit, to diffract), ablenken (avert, deviate, distract, divert, head off, put off, refract, to deflect, to deviate, to divert, to refract, turn away), ableiten (abstract, channel off, conduct, deduce, derivate, derive, differentiate, dissipate, divert, draw off, gather, to derivate, to derive, to dissipate, to divert, to drain, turn away), abfälschen. (various references)

Greek		παρεκκλίνω (aberrate, depart, deviate, shunt, sidetrack, swerve), εκτρέπω (divert, to change arrangements, to divert, to give other instructions). (various references)

Hebrew		ל�"סיט (move, remove, shake, switch, turn aside), ל�"סיח את �"�"עת (distract, sidetrack). (various references)

Hungarian		elterel (divert, to avert, to baffle, to by-pass the traffic, to deflect, to detour, to divert, to shunt, to side-track, to siphon off). (various references)

Indonesian		menyelewengkan (manipulate), mengelakkan (dodge, shirk, shunt to the side), membelokkan (distort, divert, put about). (various references)

Italian		deviare (baffle, deviate, divert, glance, offset, sheer, shunt, siphon, slant, stray, switch, wander), deflettere (deviate). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		振れる (to deflect, to lean towards, to shake, to swing, to wave), 歪む (to be bent, to be crooked, to be distorted, to be gross-grained, to be perverted, to be strained, to deflect, to get bent, to incline, to slant, to swerve, to warp). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		ひずむ (to be bent, to be crooked, to be distorted, to be gross-grained, to be perverted, to be strained, to deflect, to get bent, to incline, to slant, to swerve, to warp), ふれる (to be emotionally moved, to be touched, to deflect, to feel, to lean towards, to perceive, to shake, to swing, to touch, to touch on a subject, to violate, to wave), いがむ (to be bent, to be crooked, to be distorted, to be gross-grained, to be perverted, to be strained, to deflect, to get bent, to incline, to slant, to swerve, to warp), ゆがむ (to be bent, to be crooked, to be distorted, to be gross-grained, to be perverted, to be strained, to deflect, to get bent, to incline, to slant, to swerve, to warp). (various references)

Manx		chyndaa (avert, avert eyes, convert, invert, quirk, return, revolve, translate, turn, turn over, twirl). (various references)

Norwegian		bøye av, avvike (depart, deviate). (various references)

Pig Latin		eflectday

Portuguese		desviar (avert, depart, detour, deviate, digress, diverge, divert, errancy, fend, foil, head office, Parry, shunt, swerve, ward off), inclinar (cant, droop, fall, incline, prepossess, recline, slanting, slope, tilt, tip), flexionar (flex), curvar (bend, bow, buckle, crook, dip, incline, round). (various references)

Romanian		devia (depart, digress, diverge, drift, glance, straggle, swerve, wander, warp), se abate (deviate, diverge, stray, swerve), refracta (inflect, refract), face sã devieze (swerve), abate (abbot, call away, distract, divert, straggle, stray, swerve, turn). (various references)

Russian		отклоняться (depart, deviate, digress, diverge, incline, sheered, sheering, sheers, trend, turn aside, wander), отклонять (decline, divert, lead off, reject, set ~ aside, set aside, turn aside, turn down). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		uklanjati (eliminate, get rid of, remove), skrenuti (avert, divert, shunt, sidetrack, switch, turn), savijati (buckle on, crank, flex). (various references)

Spanish		desviarse (aberrate, backslide, break, detour, deviate, diverge, sheer off, turn, turn aside, turn off, vary, wander). (various references)

Swedish		avlänka. (various references)

Turkish		dönmek (abjure, apostatize, bear, budge from, call back, change one's mind, chop about, chop round, circle, come back, come home, face, front, get round, go back, go back on, gyrate, pivot, put about, recall, recant, reel, regress, renege, repass, return, return to, revert, revolve, rotate, round, screw, sheer from, slew, slue, spin, swallow, swerve, swim, swing, switch, switch to, tumble, turn, turn back, turn one's coat, turn over, turn round, turn up, twist, veer, veer round, wheel, wheel about, wheel around, whirl), döndürmek (return, reverse, revolve, roll, rotate, round off, slew, slew round, slue, slue round, spin, swerve, swing, turn, turn aside, turn inside out, turn over, turn round, twiddle, twirl, veer, veer round, wheel, whip, whirl, wind, wind up), saptırmak (angle, call away, color, colour, contort, demotivate, detour, deviate, distort, draw off, garble, gerrymander, lead away, reroute, strain, sway, swerve, veer, veer round, vitiate, warp, wring), sapmak (bear, detour, deviate, digress, diverge, diverge from, lapse, lead away from, oblique, sheer, sheer away, sheer from, sheer off, slant, stray, swerve, swing, turn, turn aside, turn off, turn up, wander, wander off), caymak (back down, back down from, back out, back out of, call back, change one's mind, cry off, depart, go back on, go without, leave, recant, retract, swallow, swerve, wangle, wangle out of), çevirmek (assemble, avert, bowl, change to, commute, convert, decline, divert, encircle, enclose, exchange, flip, flip over, hedge in, hedge round, inclose, interpret, manage, point, point on, pull, render, revert, roll, roll over, screw, slew, slew round, slue, slue round, spin, surround, switch to, translate, translate into, turn, turn into, turn on, turn over, turn to, twiddle, twirl, upturn, whip, wind, wind up, zone). (various references)

Turkmen		ret etmek (dissuade, reject). (various references)

Ukranian		відхилятися (bear off, deviate, diverge, incline, lapse, run off, skew, stray, swerve, trend, turn, turn aside), змінювати напрям (alter course, veer). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	declino, deflectere. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "deflect": deflectable, deflected, deflecting, deflection, deflections, deflective, deflector, deflectors, deflects. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Deflect" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: dealect, defles, deflock, delect, delfic, dilect. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "deflect" (pronounced dufle"kt)
6	-u f l e" k t	reflect.
5	-f l e" k t	inflect.
4	-l e" k t	collect, elect, neglect, recollect, reelect, select.
3	-e" k t	affect, bedecked, checked, confect, connect, correct, decked, deject, detect, direct, disaffect, disconnect, disinfect, disrespect, dissect, effect, eject, erect, expect, incorrect, indirect, infect, inject, inspect, interconnect, interject, intersect, misdirect, necked, overprotect, perfect, protect, rechecked, reconnect, redirect, reinspect, reject, respect, resurrect, sect, subject, suspect, trekked, unchecked, wecht, wrecked.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Direct Anagrams: clefted.
	Words within the letters "c-d-e-e-f-l-t"
	-1 letter: defect, felted.
	-2 letters: cleft, delft, elect, feted, fleet.
	-3 letters: cede, celt, cete, clef, deet, deft, dele, delf, delt, feed, feel, feet, felt, fete, fled, flee, leet, left, teed, teel, tele.
	-4 letters: cee, cel, dee, del, eel, eft, eld, elf, fed, fee, fet, led, lee, let, ted, tee, tel.
	-5 letters: de, ed, ef, el, et.
	Words containing the letters "c-d-e-e-f-l-t"
	+1 letter: deflects, fletched.
	+2 letters: deceitful, defalcate, deflected, deflector, inflected, reflected.
	+3 letters: affectedly, centerfold, defalcated, defalcates, deflecting, deflection, deflective, deflectors, facelifted, flichtered.
	+4 letters: centerfolds, closefisted, deceitfully, defectively, deficiently, deflectable, deflections, electrified, felicitated, genuflected, uninflected.
	+5 letters: chesterfield, indefectible, indefectibly, multifaceted, unaffectedly.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.