All 6 Uses
focus
in
Running in the Family
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- Both widows became the focus of the attention of numerous bored husbands.
p. 115.4 *focus = where attention is concentrated
- I can only clarify this range in him by focussing on this metamorphosis.
p. 198.8 *focussing = concentratingunconventional spelling: Most English-speaking regions prefer to spell this focusing.
- Once, when the circus lights failed, Major Robinson drove the fire engine into the tent and focussed the headlights on the trapeze artist, who had no intention of continuing and sat there straddling his trapeze.†
p. 41.1focussed = concentratedunconventional spelling: Most English-speaking regions prefer to spell this focused.
- As I prepare to leave she walks with me, half deaf and blind, under several ladders in her living room that balance paint and workmen, into the garden where there is a wild horse, a 193o car splayed flat on its axles and hundreds of flowering bushes so that her eyes swim out into the dark green and unfocussed purple.†
p. 112.4unfocussed = not good at concentrating on one thingstandard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unfocussed means not and reverses the meaning of focussed. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
- Unlike Cox, Vere had no profession to focus whatever talents he had.†
p. 121.2
- In this silent room (with its own unheard hum of fridge, fluorescent light) there are these frogs loud as river, gruntings, the whistle of other birds brash and sleepy, but in that night so modest behind the peacocks they were unfocussed by the brain —nothing more than darkness, all those sweet loud younger brothers of the night.†
p. 136.9unfocussed = not good at concentrating on one thingstandard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unfocussed means not and reverses the meaning of focussed. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
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)