NEGLECT • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Neglect

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/nəglˈɛkt/ /nɪglˈɛkt/ Listen

noun

Neglect n.

Omission of proper attention; avoidance or disregard of duty, from heedlessness, indifference, or willfulness; failure to do, use, or heed anything; culpable disregard; as, neglect of business, of health, of economy. "To tell thee sadly, shepherd, without blame, Or our neglect, we lost her as we came."

Omission of attention or civilities; slight; as, neglect of strangers.

Habitual carelessness; negligence. "Age breeds neglect in all."

The state of being disregarded, slighted, or neglected. "Rescue my poor remains from vile neglect."

Synonyms: Negligence; inattention; disregard; disesteem; remissness; indifference. See Negligence.

benign neglect A deliberate policy of minimizing public discussion of a controversial issue (e.g. by the president) on the theory that excessive discussion in itself is harmful or counterproductive.

verb

Neglect v. t. (past & past part. neglected; pres. part. neglecting)

Not to attend to with due care or attention; to forbear one's duty in regard to; to allow to pass unimproved, unheeded, undone, etc.; to omit; to disregard; to slight; as, to neglect duty or business; to neglect to pay debts. "I hope My absence doth neglect no great designs." "This, my long suffering and my day of grace, Those who neglect and scorn shall never taste."

To omit to notice; to forbear to treat with attention or respect; to slight; as, to neglect strangers.

Synonyms: To slight; overlook; disregard; disesteem; contemn. See Slight.

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Etymology of 'Neglect'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Neglect" Quotes from Famous Books

... Owen," said Gerald. "I now see that every neglect of duty must produce bad consequences, but I suppose, as it was your business to conceal them from me because you wanted a crew, so it was mine to have discovered them. However, the less we say about the matter the ...

— The Missing Ship - The Log of the "Ouzel" Galley • W. H. G. Kingston

... cow-stalls, in the barn, and wherever he could set up his triangular bit of looking-glass without observation, or extemporize a mirror by sticking up his hat on the outside of a window-pane. The result now was that, did he neglect to use the instrument he once had trifled with, a fine rust broke out upon his countenance on the first day, a golden lichen on the second, and a fiery stubble on the third to a degree which ...

— The Trumpet-Major • Thomas Hardy

... sent for him to answer this: And for this cause a-while we must neglect Our holy purpose to Ierusalem. Cosin, on Wednesday next, our Councell we will hold At Windsor, and so informe the Lords: But come your selfe with speed to vs againe, For more is to be saide, and to be done, Then out of anger can ...

— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare

... to the near and far; "Aya" (ho!) and "Haya" (holla!) addressed to the far, and "Ay" and "A" (A-'Abda-llahi, O Abdullah), to those near. All govern the accusative of a noun in construction in the literary language only; and the vulgar use none but the first named. The English-speaking races neglect the vocative particle, and I never heard it except in the Southern States of the AngloAmerican ...

— Supplemental Nights, Volume 1 • Richard F. Burton

... like a common Squirrel, but its coat has become more mud-coloured, and its tail is reduced by long ages of neglect to a mere vestige of the ancestral banner. It has developed great powers of burrowing, but it never climbs anything higher than the little mound that it makes about the ...

— Wild Animals at Home • Ernest Thompson Seton

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