Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
hijacking
English answer:
disruption and diversion (refocusing) of attention
English term
hijacking
I'm looking to get the whole sentence "hijacking an official reception".
The situation is about a group of people protesting against the visit of high profile figure to their country.
Thanks in advance,
Nov 10, 2020 10:59: Yvonne Gallagher Created KOG entry
PRO (1): Yvonne Gallagher
When entering new questions, KudoZ askers are given an opportunity* to classify the difficulty of their questions as 'easy' or 'pro'. If you feel a question marked 'easy' should actually be marked 'pro', and if you have earned more than 20 KudoZ points, you can click the "Vote PRO" button to recommend that change.
How to tell the difference between "easy" and "pro" questions:
An easy question is one that any bilingual person would be able to answer correctly. (Or in the case of monolingual questions, an easy question is one that any native speaker of the language would be able to answer correctly.)
A pro question is anything else... in other words, any question that requires knowledge or skills that are specialized (even slightly).
Another way to think of the difficulty levels is this: an easy question is one that deals with everyday conversation. A pro question is anything else.
When deciding between easy and pro, err on the side of pro. Most questions will be pro.
* Note: non-member askers are not given the option of entering 'pro' questions; the only way for their questions to be classified as 'pro' is for a ProZ.com member or members to re-classify it.
Responses
Ireland
right word, right place. everytime
Native in: English (Variants: Irish, UK, US, Canadian) 
Works in: French to English, Spanish to English, English, and 1 more.
disrupting the reception so focus is on hijacking/hijackers
It has the meaning of 2 a) b) below where the organisers lose control of the reception for their purposes as the hijackers have manged to disrupt it so much
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/hijacked
2.
a. To take control of (something) without permission or authorization and use it for one's own purposes: dissidents who hijacked the town council; spammers who hijacked a computer network.
b. To steal or appropriate for oneself: hijacked her story and used it in his own book.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2 days 23 mins (2020-11-10 03:22:40 GMT) Post-grading
--------------------------------------------------
Not as common as hijacking a plane but not that uncommon either.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2 days 7 hrs (2020-11-10 10:54:53 GMT) Post-grading
--------------------------------------------------
it is quite often used with the meaning of disruption or interruption so that attention is focused in a different direction (or onto the hijacker).
If you google "Hijack a meeting" there are lots of examples e.g.
https://www.justiceclearinghouse.com/resource/managing-the-m...
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/hijack
| It is not common to use the word "hijacking" in such a context, right? |
| agree |
Tony M
: Well explained!
1 hr
|
|
Thanks!
|
|
| agree |
Daryo
: in this ST, the point of "hijacking" an official reception was most likely in grabbing for themselves media attention, not a literal "hijacking" as in "taking hostage all persons present" as would be the "hijacking" of a plane.
1 hr
|
|
Thanks!
|
worked for int. orgs (IMF, OAS, IDB)
Native in: English
Works in: Spanish to English, German to English
breaking into and taking control of
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 22 mins (2020-11-08 03:21:24 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
or at least trying to take control
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 23 mins (2020-11-08 03:22:26 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
bit ambiguous
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 52 mins (2020-11-08 03:50:51 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
and really hard to interpret
| Could it be take the highlight of the official reception? I mean make the public focus on them instead of the main event. Thank you. |
| agree |
Anastasia Andriani
2 hrs
|
| agree |
philgoddard
3 hrs
|
| agree |
Mark Robertson
4 hrs
|
| agree |
Sheila Wilson
8 hrs
|
| neutral |
Yvonne Gallagher
: I think it goes further. Asker has got the meaning of this in their question to you
10 hrs
|
| disagree |
Daryo
: clue: "throwing flour bombs at the president's car" // these are attention seekers bent on doing a PR stunt, not deadly fanatics => "taking control of" makes no sense.
1 day 21 hrs
|
Discussion
Being nothing more than a nuisance / a pain in the neck for the invited guests is hardly "taking control".