put sb off their stride
UK also put sb off their stroketo take someone's attention away from what they are doing, so that they stop doing it or do it wrong:
He interrupted mid-speech and it put me off my stride.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Creating a distraction
- distract
- distraction
- diversion
- divert
- escape
- mind
- put
- put sb off (sth)
- put sb off their stride/stroke idiom
- sidetrack
- smoke and mirrors
- stride
- subject
- take
- take sb out of himself/herself
- take sb's mind off sth idiom