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unfocused

unfocused

1 4.2
Not clear or sharp, making details hard to see
  • adjective
  • /ʌnˈfoʊkəst/
translation icon : desenfocado
  • She stared at the unfocused text on the screen, struggling to make sense of the words.
  • unfocused eyes

His eyes are unfocused, his lips hang open.

Examples

  • The map in front of me is 12 feet across and glows in unfocused luminous orange.

    Academic text (2007)
  • Liza Bean turns her green and slightly unfocused eyes on me.

    Blog text (16)
  • His eyes are unfocused, his lips hang open.

  • A flat plane of slightly unfocused gray and red tiles under a uniform blue sky.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • It was just a little unfocused, but what do you think?

  • The performances are all over the place, the camerawork is unfocused.

  • Voices reached them once, unfocused, indistinct.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • The CAT scan monitor: something horrific, unfocused, starts to come into view.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • Paint started peeling off the walls, and the plastic piping had a soft, unfocused look to it.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • His eyes were blurry and unfocused as he tried to remember what happened last night.

Synonyms

blurry
vsunfocused
70 3.6

Looks unclear, so you cannot see details

is the result of not bringing the view into precise focus
blurred
vsunfocused
2 3.4

Not clear to see or understand, like a photo

is caused by the view not being brought into clear focus
unsharp
vsunfocused
4.8

Not having a sharp edge or a clear picture

emphasizes lack of clear focus rather than edge quality

Antonyms

40 1.0

Pure and distinct in sound or colour

2.9

A lens adjusted to show a clear, sharp picture

How Focused

sharp
55 1.3
focused
2.9
soft
182 1.0
unfocused
1 4.2
blurred
2 3.4

Surface Forms

unfocused positive

Morphology

unfocused = focused (transparent) = un + focus + ed

The negation 'un-' applied to 'focused' straightforwardly gives 'not in clear focus' (optical sense).

Etymology

Unfocused comes from un- 'not' and focus, the word for the sharp center in a picture or a camera. So an unfocused image is not clear or sharp and looks blurred.