unfocusedadj.
/(ˌ)ʌnˈfəʊkəst/, U.S. /ˌənˈfoʊkəst/ 1. Characterized by a lack of direction or focus.
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1859 Bristol Mercury 14 May 4/2 It was a mind unfocussed and undirected strongly to a given point.
1943 A. Rand Fountainhead i. viii. 101 Your work. Very interesting. But not practical. Not mature. Unfocused and undisciplined.
1979 Washington Post (Nexis) 12 May (Final ed.) d8 Federal aid to minority businesses has been hindered by unfocused leadership and a misuse of resources.
1986 Bicycling Mar. 66/2 The quiet unfocused kid who often seemed to be just getting by was replaced by a dedicated athlete discovering his potential.
2011 Atlantic Online (Nexis) 12 Apr. This week's episode took a superficial and unfocused look at what makes relationships work.
2.
a. Of a lens, telescope, etc.: not adjusted to focus; presenting a blurry or indistinct view or image.
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1863 Scotsman 15 Oct. 6/7 An unprepared plate is exposed in a camera behind an unfocused lens.
1928 Geogr. Rev. 18 702 The average Occidental's idea of the world beyond the bounds of Europe was vague and blurry—like the image seen through an unfocused field glass.
1973 Pop. Photogr. Jan. 60/2 Taking pictures with an unfocused lens results in visual blobs.
2015 K. Bao Dove Arising (2016) xx. 150 Everything dissolves like spiral galaxies through an unfocused telescope.
b. Of a person's eyes or gaze: not focusing on a particular person or thing.
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1877 Leisure Hour 20 Jan. 43/2 The number of respectable men everywhere whose hazy, bloodshot, and unfocussed eyes indicate hard drinking.
1886 T. Hardy Mayor of Casterbridge II. xii. 307 His eyes lighting on them with an unfocused gaze.
1968 D. Moraes My Son's Father vii. 132 In a thunderous, bullying voice, his eyes unfocused, he would demand to be bought a drink.
2008 A. Davidson Gargoyle (2009) i. 1 My eyes were heavy and my vision unfocused.
c. Not able to be seen clearly or discerned; not in focus; blurry, indistinct.
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1912 Sci. Amer. 27 Jan. 87/1 Focusing your eyes on the end of the finger, you will see the two unfocused and blurred pictures.
1954 Pop. Sci. Dec. 205/2 Now the image had become unfocused and had lost fine detail.
1955 J. B. Sidgwick Amateur Astronomer's Handbk. iv. 95 Dark detail on a bright ground..is tinted blue by the overlapping unfocused fringes of the images of all the bright adjacent points, and tends to be lost.
2001 Washington Post (Nexis) 13 June (Final ed.) c14 I still get angry every time I see those cockeyed, unfocused ‘snapshots’ of our beautiful wedding.
Derivatives
unˈfocusedly adv.
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1930 E. F. Benson Inheritor iv. 86 His mouth smiled, his eyes half closed, as he lay back again, looked unfocusedly in front of him.
1949 W. Beebe High Jungle xxii. 345 The shifting and kaleidoscopic movement wrought a sort of hypnotic influence, and we found ourselves gazing unfocusedly at the shifting, colored mass.
1974 New Leader 18 Feb. 12/2 Long, droning readings of Marxist texts to which amateurish dancers unfocusedly sashay about.
2001 C. J. Dorsey Paradigm of Earth (2002) vi. 104 ‘What's wrong with you today?’ Morgan said to Jakob, who was unfocusedly meandering around the kitchen.
unˈfocusedness n.
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1970 D. Barthelme in New Yorker 12 Dec. 47/2 Chaos is a position, but a weak one, related to that ‘unfocussedness’ about which I have forgotten to speak.
1985 Diacritics 15 6 Several of these points are minor in themselves; but they betray a certain unfocusedness of analysis.
1997 C. B. Divakaruni Mistress of Spices 211 I'd look at that brief unfocusedness in her eyes before she hurried to fix me a snack.
2012 Sunday Business Post (Ireland) (Nexis) 11 Mar. (Agenda section) This approach has given the book a certain unfocusedness, a serial tendency to meander all over the place and to jump back and forth in the chronology.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1859