All 7 Uses
focus
in
The Things They Carried
(Edited)
- It was an action shot-women's volleyball-and Martha was bent horizontal to the floor, reaching, the palms of her hands in sharp focus, the tongue taut, the expression frank and competitive.
Chpt 1focus = view (a state where something can be seen clearly)
- It was the volleyball shot: Martha bent horizontal to the floor, reaching, the palms of her hands in sharp focus.
Chpt 2
- In times of action her face took on a sudden new composure, almost serene, the fuzzy blue eyes narrowing into a tight, intelligent focus.
Chpt 9focus = attention
- …to talk about it: the stiff thump of the bullet, like a fist, the way it knocks the air out of you and makes you cough, how the sound of the gunshot arrives about ten years later, and the dizzy feeling, the smell of yourself, the things you think about and say and do right afterward, the way your eyes focus on a tiny white pebble or a blade of grass and how you start thinking, Oh man, that's the last thing I'll ever see, that pebble, that blade of grass, which makes you want to cry.
Chpt 20focus = look closely
- But then you remember the guys who died: Curt Lemon, Kiowa, Ted Lavender, a half-dozen others whose faces you can't bring into focus anymore.
Chpt 20focus = view (a state where something can be seen clearly)
- He'd try to bring the night into focus, willing coherence, but the effort would only cause distortions.
Chpt 20 *
- I focused on Jorgenson's brand-new boots, then on a pebble, then on my own face floating high above me-the last things I'd ever see.
Chpt 20 *focused = looked
Definitions:
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(1)
(focus as in: Turn your focus to question #2.) to direct attention or effort toward a single thing; or the ability to do so without getting distracted
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(2)
(focus as in: The focus of our study is...) where attention is concentrated or directed
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(3)
(focus as in: bring into focus; or out of focus) a state where something has come into view or can be seen clearly; or an adjustment made to permit a clear view
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(4)
(focus as with technical usage) technical usage typically involves some sense of center or concentration such as:
- physics — a point where things come together such as the point where light rays meet
- geometry — a fixed reference point (as of a parabola)
- geology — the point of origin of an earthquake
See a comprehensive dictionary for other less common meanings. - (5) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)