Detract

verb

verb ·2 syllables ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To take away; to withdraw or remove. intransitive

    "The Conan O’Brien-penned half-hour has the capacity to rip our collective hearts out the way the cute, funny bad girl next door does to Bart when she reveals that her new boyfriend is Jimbo Jones, but the show keeps shying away from genuine emotion in favor of jokes that, while overwhelmingly funny, detract from the poignancy and the emotional intimacy of the episode."

  2. 2
    take away a part from; diminish wordnet
  3. 3
    To take credit or reputation from; to derogate; to defame or decry. transitive

    "That calumnious critic […] / Detracting what laboriously we do."

Synonyms

All synonyms
take awayabateabradeabstractasperseassassinate

Example

More examples

"Further elaboration or ornament would only detract from the perfection of its simplicity."

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French détracter, from Latin detractum, past participle of detraho.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.