defocus
Americanverb (used with object)
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to cause loss of focus of.
The slightest movement will defocus the microscope.
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to interrupt or disturb (concentration, attention, etc.).
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to disturb the concentration or awareness of (someone).
verb (used without object)
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to lose or go out of focus.
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to lose concentration or awareness; become distracted.
noun
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defocuses
plural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of defocus
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
I was disappointed with the mic quality and background defocus button as well.
From The Verge ● Oct. 6, 2021
Do you prep, defocus to clear your head for the next day’s possibilities, socialise, stay isolated and meditative?
From The Guardian ● Jun. 12, 2020
The higher contrast full dose average was also calculated and used for defocus determination and for manual particle picking.
From Nature ● Apr. 18, 2016
To express boredom, an anthropomorphic device may defocus its gaze, direct its gaze in a downward fashion, tap its foot, and/or close its eyes.
From Time ● May 22, 2015
Didn't you ever stop to think that a few air molecules could defocus the stream?
From Teething Ring by Dick Francis
It suggests that some mental processes linked to ADHD, including defocused attention, may also support creative thinking when they are directed in productive ways.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 3, 2026
However, light passing through the ring itself is defocused slightly meaning that the peripheral retina gets a slightly blurred image.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2025
Martindale and his group interpreted alpha power as a marker of decreased cortical arousal and defocused attention and suggested that creative people were allowing more information into their conscious awareness during creative work.
From Scientific American ● Apr. 14, 2011
In fact, the cyclotron had been working perfectly well with beams far more defocused by imperfections in the magnetic field—those bothersome irregularities combated by shimming—than they would be by the relativistic effects that Bethe posited.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Suddenly, his gaze defocused and he looked aside, to stare unseeingly at the floor.
From Indirection by Kelly Freas
The KU researcher said the combination of a defocusing magnetospheric plasma and a focusing gravity create in-phase and out-of-phase interference bands of radio-wave intensity that appear as the Crab Pulsar's zebra stripes.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 28, 2026
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
