/deflect/
-) Verb.
-) Pronunciation and accent: dɪflɛkt.
-) Etymology: from Latin deflectere (to bend aside, or downwards); from de- (prefix meaning “away”, “down”, “off”) + flectere (to bend, turn). It is etymologically and semantically identical to Italian deflettere.
-) Present third person singular: she/he deflects.
-) Preterite tense, preterite participle: deflected.
-) Present participle: deflecting.
-) Transitively: to cause (something moving or mobile) to deviate from its direction.
-) Synonyms for “deflect”: trend, bend, swerve, redirect.
-) Translation: desviar, in Spanish; deviare, in Italian; défléchir, in French.
A pencil of light, deflected from its path by a prism of a denser substance, in different positions.
Thomas Young… Course of Lectures… 1807
A wester or sea-breeze, deflected by the ravines to a norther, was blowing; and in these regions, as in the sub-frigid zones of Europe, wind makes all the difference of temperature.
Burton… The Land of Midian… 1879
They are building wing-dams here and there to deflect the current; and dikes to confine it in narrower bounds.
Twain… Life on the Mississippi… 1883
"Then float a little, and we can take the exact course of the wind again. The canoe, of course, will continue to go the way the wind goes."
"Unless it's deflected by currents which do not always follow the wind."
Altsheler… The Masters of the Peaks… 1918
-) With the preposition “from” + a noun by which the previous direction is designated:
The progressive velocity of this gale was also lessened by the same cause which deflected it from its first course.
James Imray… The Atlantic Navigator… 1854
… the sun’s gravitational field deflected the light from the stars.
Malpass… Guide to Science… 2000
-) Intransitively: (the subject: something or someone moving) to deviate from its direction.
-) Synonyms: trend, bend, swerve, warp.
-) Translation: desviarse, in Spanish; deflettere, in Italian; défléchir, in French.
Lyra turned to walk toward the house, deflecting a little in the direction of her nephew and Miss Northwick.
Howells… Annie Kilburn 1888
Perhaps he should never again reach the point that he was aware of deflecting from now.
Howells… The Landlord… 1897
-) With the preposition “to” (the consequent direction), or “from” (the direction that the mover followed before the deflective action):
… the line of descent was not exactly rectilinear, but that each atom deflected a little from the straight line, and each in its own direction and degree.
Bain… Moral Science… 1868
When they were well up the path, in that part of it where it deflects from the drive without approaching the street too closely, and achieves something of seclusion, she said:
Howells… Fennel and Rue… 1870
Areas of cooler and heavier air make up a high-pressure system. This cooler air moves downward from a high and, again deflecting to the right in the Northern Hemisphere, moves clockwise.
P. Conkin… The state of the Earth… 2006
… the ray deflects away from the axis.
S. Holzner… Physics II for Dummies… 2010
-) Metaphorical:
His suicide, however corroborative of suspicion, were there found to be deceit in the affidavits, is, without such deceit, in no respect an unaccountable circumstance, or one which need cause us to deflect from the line of ordinary analysis.
Edgar Poe… The Mystery… 1842
-) English words derived from Latin flectere: flexible, flex (noun, verb), flexibility, flexibleness, flexibly, flexile, flexing, flexion, flection, flexional, flectional, flexionless, flectionless, flexography, flexographic, flexor, flexuose, flexuosity, flexuous, flexuously, flexural, flexure, circumflex (verb, noun), circumflexion, circumflection, flection, flector, flinch (noun, verb), flincher, flinching, flinchingly, inflect, inflecting, inflectable, inflected, inflectedness, inflective, inflexed, inflexibility, inflexible, inflexibleness, inflexibly, inflexion, inflection, inflexionless, inflectionless, inflexional, inflectional, inflexionally, inflectionally, reflect (noun, verb), reflectance, reflected, reflectedly, reflectedness, reflecter, reflectibility, reflectible, reflecting, reflectingly, reflection, reflexion, reflectional, reflectioning, reflectionist, reflectionless, reflective, reflectively, reflectiveness, reflectivity, reflector, reflectored, reflectorially, reflectorize, reflectorized, reflectoscope, unreflected, unreflecting, unreflectingly, unreflectingness, unreflective, uninflected, uninflectedness, unflinching, unflinchingly, exflect, flecnode, flecnodal, genuflect, genuflecting, genuflector, genuflectory, genuflex, genuflexed, genuflexion, genuflection, retroflex, retroflexed, retroflexion, introflexion.
-) English words derived from “deflect”: deflect (adj.), deflectable, deflected, deflecting, deflection, deflective, deflector, deflexed, deflexibility, deflexible, deflexion, deflexure.
