misdirection

«misdirection» in Mova's school dictionary: Making people look at or think about the wrong thing so… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 3 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (misdirection — usually uncountable)

meaning for a pupil

1) Making people look at or think about the wrong thing so they don't notice what is really happening, used by magicians and tricksters. tree →

2) Sending someone the wrong way or giving wrong instructions. tree →

sense in the lessons

In lessons about truth, lies and tricks: magicians use misdirection — they make you look at one hand while the other hand does the trick; scammers and some adverts use misdirection too, so pay attention to what you are not being shown. In stories: a mystery writer uses misdirection to hide the real culprit.

examples

• The magician used misdirection to hide the coin. tree →
• While he talked, his other hand did the trick – that's misdirection. tree →
• Mystery stories use misdirection to surprise readers. tree →
• The scammer's email used misdirection to get people to click. tree →
• Pickpockets use misdirection to steal wallets. tree →
• A wrong road sign caused a lot of misdirection. tree →

note

Usually uncountable. Prefix mis- (wrongly) + direction. Related verb: misdirect. Knowing about misdirection helps you spot tricks — it is not real magic.

In the corpora

• Sleight of hand is quick, practised hand movement you don't notice; misdirection steers your attention away from the secret move.
• Misdirection means steering people's attention away from the secret move.
• The heart of most tricks is misdirection — making you look one way while the secret happens somewhere else.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «misdirection» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.