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diversion

[dih-vur-zhuhn, -shuhn, dahy-]

noun

the act of diverting or turning aside, as from a course or purpose: a diversion of industry into the war effort.

a channel made to divert the flow of water from one course to another or to direct the flow of water draining from a piece of ground.

British. a detour on a highway or road.

distraction from business, care, etc.; recreation; amusement; a pastime: Movies are his favorite diversion.

Military. a feint intended to draw off attention from the point of main attack.

Origin:
1590–1600; < Medieval Latin dīversiōn- (stem of dīversiō), equivalent to Latin dīvers(us) diverse + -iōn- -ion

Related forms

pre·di·ver·sion, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To diversion

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Diversion is always a great word to know.

So is flibbertigibbet. Does it mean:

a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.

an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.

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Example Sentences

Niznik worked with dispatchers to train them and add new features to the diversion software.

Reading, where it exists at all, has largely become an unprofitable wing of the diversion industry.

Once these measures were in place, the diversion plan could be reconsidered.

EXPAND

Niznik worked with dispatchers to train them and add new features to the diversion software.

Reading, where it exists at all, has largely become an unprofitable wing of the diversion industry.

Once these measures were in place, the diversion plan could be reconsidered.

Only about half of this important watershed is left today due to water diversion and draining.

All of this was a diversion from the original story of the man with the cart, the man wringing his hands.

These tales have spawned legal battles, comics-page yarns, and endless dinner-table diversion.

Your weekly diversion is a little puzzle about four knights and four dragons.

The transbasin diversion will simply create a new environmental crisis," the brief said.

Fear itself has changed, from an obstacle to a diversion.

Your two minutes of brain-sizzling diversion can be found here.

After a day of playing, relaxing by the beach was a welcome diversion.

From the political point of view, you can still discuss the politics of diversion of rivers that cross borders.

Even more useful for the forests would be diversion of fuel source to the various weeds that plague the world.

The iPhone can be a fantastic diversion for an otherwise irritable or overexcited child--if you have the right apps.

The diversion menu is larger, with lots of screen tools and toys to fill their leisure hours.

It's an old and persistent myth that has served as a virile diversion from the effects of one's own failures.

One colonist brought a set of porcelain cups, another a miniature windmill for diversion.

Haliburton may have been paid to sabotage the well and create a disaster, or a diversion.

If students aren't culturally literate, a welcome diversion can help fill in their gaps of knowledge.

Fear of fuel diversion is growing, along with fear of proliferation in general.

The locals had built a rock and mud dam around it in a diversion arch.

Realizing when a diversion has gotten out of control is one of the great challenges of life.

He dealt with them through a mixture of denial and diversion.

Droves of children descend on the stranger, hungry for diversion.

Diversion and consumption of ancient nonrenewed fresh water reservoirs are limiting availability.

They are not contending for the box-office top ten, but they offer a welcome diversion from the silly season at the cineplex.

One placebo or another can be a dangerous diversion from proven therapies.

First, they worry that preferential tariffs will cause trade to flow in inefficient ways, a process known as trade diversion.

It began as a between-periods diversion at hockey games.

Even so, the river's diversion meant it hit villages rarely affected by flooding and unprepared to deal with.

The diversion isn't filling the marsh with sediments on a grand.

Some diversion will happen, but firms that have tried tiered pricing have found ways to reduce it.

The annual pageant is a welcome diversion from the strictly regimented routine and the monotony of life inside the jail.

Lodge excellent diversion from the vicissitudes of politics.

Lots of screen time here, all for play and diversion.

And the diversion of so much of that false prosperity into foreign military adventures.

It is not, for all that, an entirely benign diversion.

There are ways to prevent diversion without imprisoning doctors who have shown no illegal intent.

The diversion of the output of arable land to produce vehicle fuel is contributing to food shortages and food price inflation.

They had a pump and a diversion made of plastic water bottles so they could work two sluices at once.

Ideally tapping into magma centers would allow increased thermal diversion through tectonic overlapping.

Gaming tends to be regarded as a harmless diversion at best, a vile corruptor of youth at worst.

Lawn bowling is a good diversion from too much relaxation.

Receiving a summons and having the charges dropped after pleaing to a court diversion program doesn't count.

Such river diversion is a common sight around the world as populations and food production boom.

Honors lost his because the media found out about what he believed to be a fun diversion from his duties in his old one.

Colleges should return to the days when sports was merely a diversion for real students.

Let's bring back the discussion to cleaning up the environment, and forget this diversion on global warming.

But engaging in a tasteless, sleazy diversion is different from doing something dangerous.

It's a fun diversion that also serves as its own standalone mode of play.

Comparing the success of the greedy elite per country and their propensity to gobble up everything in sight is a diversion.

What will always be debated at the fringes of the science is what causes each little squigglie diversion from the warming trend.

His only diversion is scanning the gardens and streets with his binoculars.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

diversion (daɪˈvɜːʃən)

—n
1.	the act of diverting from a specified course
2.	chiefly (Brit) an official detour used by traffic when a main route is closed
3.	something that distracts from business, etc; amusement
4.	military a feint attack designed to draw an enemy away from the main attack

di'versional

—*adj*

di'versionary

—*adj*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

diversion

1600, from M.Fr. diversion, from L.L. diversionem (nom. diversio), from L. divertere (see divert). Sense of "amusement, entertainment" is first recorded 1648. Hence, divertimento (1823), from the It. form, originally "a musical composition designed primarily for entertainment."

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Matching Quote

"When men consider the great pains, industry, and parts, that have, for so many ages, been laid out on the cultivation and advancement of the sciences, and that notwithstanding all this, the far greater part of them remain full of darkness and uncertainty, and that, taking all together, a small portion of them doth supply any real benefit to mankind, otherwise than by being an innocent diversion and amusement: I say, the consideration of all this is apt to throw them into a despondency, and perfect contempt of all study."

-George Berkeley

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