All 4 Uses of
divert
in
Crime and Punishment
- They were particularly diverted, when Marmeladov, dragged about by his hair, shouted that it was a consolation to him.†
Chpt 1.2 *
- This was in order to divert the attention of the old woman for a time, while she was trying to undo the knot, and so to gain a moment.†
Chpt 1.6
- "I believe it's a sort of legal rule, a sort of legal tradition—for all investigating lawyers—to begin their attack from afar, with a trivial, or at least an irrelevant subject, so as to encourage, or rather, to divert the man they are cross-examining, to disarm his caution and then all at once to give him an unexpected knock-down blow with some fatal question.†
Chpt 4.5
- No, I should first have disarmed your suspicions and not let you see I knew of that fact, should have diverted your attention and suddenly have dealt you a knock-down blow (your expression) saying: 'And what were you doing, sir, pray, at ten or nearly eleven at the murdered woman's flat and why did you ring the bell and why did you ask about blood?†
Chpt 4.5
Definition:
-
(divert as in: divert the traffic or funds) to change the direction of something, or the purpose for which it is used