Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use detract in a sentence

15 example sentences · verb

Detract means to take away; to withdraw or remove. Example: “Yet the water that surrounds the tofu inside the vacuum pack detracts from its appearance.”

More sentences with detract

  • Yet the water that surrounds the tofu inside the vacuum pack detracts from its appearance.2010, William Shurtleff, Akiko Aoyagi, History of Soybeans and Soyfoods in Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania, page 320. From the entry vacuum pack
  • A few sounds were consistently more enhancing, while most were consistently more detracting.1982, L.M. Anderson, B.D. Mulligan, L.S. Goodman, “Esthetics of Sound in Outdoor Settings”, in Southeastern Recreation Research Conference…. From the entry enhancing
  • Everything existed only to detract attention from something else.2019 November 19, Charlotte Lydia Riley, “Dear journalists: please stop calling everything a “dead cat””, in Prospect Magazine, archived…. From the entry dead cat
  • The ears are very pronounced, with an "elfism" that detracts from her overall appearance, and make her look "funny" or unappealing.2016 May, Mendoman, “Face "Golden ratio"”, in Daz 3D Forums. From the entry elfism
  • If these “Octopusical” projects are not closed, they continue to consume time and resources while detracting from valuable accomplishments.2009, Deji Badiru, Getting Things Done Through Project Management, page 30. From the entry octopusical
  • I won't say anything else about the Zorkian characters or combat for fear of detracting from each exhilarating discovery.1982, Popular Computing, volume 2. From the entry Zorkian
  • It doesn't detract from their lives?2025, Michael Malit, Astral Covenant Online. From the entry puppification
  • Probably nothing is more detracting and dissatisfying than buying a potted flowering plant which quits flowering as soon as it is taken home.2012, Dattajirao K. Salunkhe, Narayana R. Bhat, Babasaheb B. Desai, Postharvest Biotechnology of Flowers and Ornamental Plants, page 150. From the entry detracting
  • Overraked poles are always an eyesore, and undoubtedly detract from the appearance of the overhead equipment, no matter how well it is erected.1938, Transport World - Volume 83, page 125. From the entry overrake
  • Neither of them detracted from how traffic-stoppingly handsome he was, but they were enough to inspire questions and the ensuing jokes about how she'd beaten him up.2011, Victoria Pade, It Takes a Family. From the entry stoppingly
  • Meditation, the JewBus argued, did not detract from their Jewishness; rather, their identity was enhanced by the practice, by silent reflection and a mental reaching out toward God.2007, Newsweek, volume 150, page 6. From the entry JewBu
  • He sometimes paid Descartes the backhanded compliment—backhanded because it detracted from the Frenchman's much-vaunted originality— of suggesting that his major achievement was to restore the study of Plato.2006, Stuart Brown, N. J. Fox, Historical Dictionary of Leibniz's Philosophy, →ISBN, page 202. From the entry backhanded
  • Oppressive anaglyptas, sickly floral designs or ugly woodchip paper made us long for smooth painted walls that would not detract attention from our furniture or paintings.2002, Abigail Trow, Surface: Textures, Finishes and Materials for Stylish Interiors, page 61. From the entry anaglypta
  • You must admit, Hirst, that a little Italian town even would vulgarise the whole scene, would detract from the vastness — the sense of elemental grandeur."1915, Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out. From the entry vulgarize
  • This to them seems most like mother earth in color, and therefore best, as it is, to enhance the beauty of flowers instead of detracting from their exquisite shades.1913, Mary Averill, Japanese flower arrangement, Chapter 20. From the entry glitter

Meaning of detract

  1. verb To take away; to withdraw or remove.
  2. verb To take credit or reputation from; to derogate; to defame or decry.

Full definition of detract

Questions about detract in a sentence

How do you use detract in a sentence?
Detract is used as a verb. For example: “Yet the water that surrounds the tofu inside the vacuum pack detracts from its appearance.”
What is a short sentence with detract?
“It doesn't detract from their lives?”
What does detract mean?
Detract means to take away; to withdraw or remove.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: detract (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use detract in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/detract. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.