detract

Word family

1 detract from something phrasal verbphr v SPOILto make something seem less good 减低，破坏，损害 OPP enhance

One mistake is not going to detract from your achievement.

一个失误无损于你的成就。

n GRAMMAR: Using the progressive

Detract is not used in the progressive. You say:

Litter detracts from the appearance of the town.

✗Don’t say: Litter is detracting from the appearance of the town.

Examples from the Corpus

detract from • We need to ask whether the interest in Machiavellian behaviour is detracting from the positive side of political activity.• This would allow some room for choice, but would not detract from the fundamental notion of a centrally planned service.• It would also detract from the open aspect of the field and more generally from the landscape character of the areas.• Some observers worry that the role of landlord will detract from the primary business of five-star hotels.• Her striking mannerisms detract from the reality of the character.• They felt that the proposed development would detract from the rural character of the area because of its size, height and bulk.• All this was strategy he had developed to detract from their discrepancy in height.• Any fears that either food or service might detract from this otherwise delightful scene were immediately dismissed -- both are excellent.

Examples from the Corpus

detract• No amount of display or pomp is going to increase it, or lack of it detract.• I think this is a very convenient sort of way to detract attention from much more serious problems.• However, these are insufficient to detract from a very readable and extensive account of modern mass spectrometry.• Some observers worry that the role of landlord will detract from the primary business of five-star hotels.• Her striking mannerisms detract from the reality of the character.• The omission of these chapters will not detract from your general appreciation of homoeopathy.• For instance, if there is one other woman engineer she may detract from your special status.

Origin detract

(1400-1500) Latin detractus, past participle of detrahere “to take away”

LDOCE Online

Chinese

Syllable

Corpus

TOEFL BNC: 11265 COCA: 14366

detract