How to Use divert in a Sentence

divert

verb
  • The stream was diverted toward the farmland.
  • Police diverted traffic to a side street.
  • He lied to divert attention from the real situation.
  • They're only proposing the law to divert attention from important issues.
  • They were charged with illegally diverting public funds for private use.
  • The bill would divert those funds to the RDA for 10 years.
    — Carrie Napoleon, chicagotribune.com, 3 Feb. 2022
  • The co-pilot was forced to divert and land the plane in Athens, Greece.
    — Escher Walcott, People.com, 10 Feb. 2025
  • Some friends had to sit and watch it with me: I would not be diverted.
    — Hamish Bowles, Vogue, 25 Apr. 2024
  • The device is then deployed, which acts like a stent to divert blood away from the aneurysm.
    — Vanessa Etienne, Peoplemag, 29 Sep. 2022
  • The metaverse is stage two of that plan that's already been forced to divert from its roadmap.
    — Billy Bambrough, Forbes, 25 Oct. 2021
  • The big picture: The change is part of a wider city effort to divert refuse from landfills.
    — Asher Price, Axios, 31 Oct. 2024
  • Partnerships like this help raise awareness about the process and the need to divert waste.
    — Danielle Bernabe, Fortune, 12 Jan. 2022
  • Democrats hope the focus on Trump will divert the scrutiny of Biden.
    — Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review, 18 June 2022
  • The crew was able to restore the flow of fuel and the flight was diverted to Portland, Oregon.
    — Patrick Smith, NBC News, 3 Nov. 2023
  • And once more, people are asking if anything can be done to stop or divert the flow.
    — Audrey McAvoy, The Christian Science Monitor, 1 Dec. 2022
  • And once more, people are asking if anything can be done to stop or divert the flow.
    — Audrey McAvoy, Anchorage Daily News, 1 Dec. 2022
  • And once more, people are asking if anything can be done to stop or divert the flow.
    — Audrey McAvoy, ajc, 1 Dec. 2022
  • As the state closes in on a deadline to require cities to divert more waste to compost, change doesn’t come cheap.
    — Gwendolyn Wu, San Francisco Chronicle, 4 Jan. 2022
  • In six of those cases, airplanes had to divert to avoid hitting the drone, Vinograd said.
    — Luke Barr, ABC News, 21 Nov. 2023
  • The concept is to divert profit from the scalpers and place it back in the pockets of the artist and Ticketmaster itself.
    — Rodney Ho, ajc, 27 July 2022
  • Three planes were diverted away from Kazan while the restrictions were in place, the airport said.
    — David Brennan, ABC News, 20 Jan. 2025
  • Barkalow’s goal, according to the complaint, was to divert Confirmed360 clients to his own business.
    — Samantha Hissong, Rolling Stone, 10 Nov. 2021
  • When the Reds went 99 innings without holding a lead, Bell didn’t divert from his approach with the bullpen.
    — Charlie Goldsmith, The Enquirer, 6 May 2022
  • Just the talk of a tax is apt to divert funds into non-real estate assets.
    — Brendan Ahern, Forbes, 25 Oct. 2021
  • The city could end up diverting up to 8.2 million gallons of lake water per day.
    — Todd Richmond, Chicago Tribune, 14 Sep. 2023
  • Civilian airports have been closed in Iran and flights from the Persian Gulf were diverted.
    — USA TODAY, 19 Apr. 2024
  • Some of the floats, bands and balloons appeared to be diverted to avoid the protesters who had glued themselves to the pavement.
    — Timothy Bella, Washington Post, 24 Nov. 2023
  • Humans in the past have tried to divert or even stop lava from advancing.
    — Holly Yan, CNN, 7 Dec. 2022
  • Over time, however, many states have diverted much, if not most, of that money to things other than cash aid for poor families.
    — Jennifer Ludden, NPR, 2 May 2025
  • The barriers and dams also diverted the lava flow towards a safe direction.
    — Monica Cull, Discover Magazine, 9 May 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'divert.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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