negligence

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The state or quality of being negligent.
2. n. A negligent act or a failure to act.
3. n. Law Failure to exercise the degree of care considered reasonable under the circumstances, resulting in an unintended injury to another party.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The fact or the character of being negligent or neglectful; deficiency in or lack of care, exactness, or application; the omitting to do, or a habit of omitting to do, things which ought to be done, or the doing of such things without sufficient attention and care; carelessness;. heedless disregard of some duty.
2. n. Specifically, in law, the failure to exercise that degree of care which the law requires for the protection of those interests of other persons which may be injuriously affected by the want of such care. If such failure directly results in injury to the interests of another person, who did not by his own negligence contribute to the result, the negligence is actionable negligence. If the failure to exercise due care is wilful, liability is incurred irrespective of contributory negligence, but the failure may still be treated at the option of the person injured as mere negligence, so far at least as concerns the liability of the person actually guilty of it, and in some eases also for the purpose of holding his employer liable. By a rule of law which obtains in some of the United States, the person injured may recover notwithstanding his own negligence if it was slight as compared with that of the defendant (comparative negligence). Contributive or contributory negligence is negligence, on the part of the person injured, which contributed to produce the injury. Gross negligence is the failure to exercise even slight care, and is usually measured by reference to that degree of care which every person of ordinary sense, however inattentive, takes of his own interests. Ordinary negligence is the failure to exercise ordinary care, usually measured by reference to that degree of care which a man of common prudence and capable of governing a family takes of his own interests. Slight negligence is the failure to exercise a high degree of care, usually measured by reference to that diligence with which a circumspect and thoughtful person would attend to his own interests. Whether these three degrees are proper distinctions to be observed as a test of liability for damages is much disputed, but there is no question that the law fully recognizes in a general way the corresponding degrees of care as required of persons in various different relations, nor that degrees of neglect must be noticed by the law in determining other questions than that of liability for damages, as good faith, fidelity, etc.
3. n. Lack of attention to niceties or conventionalities, especially of dress, manner, or style; disregard of appearances; easy indifference of manner.
4. n. An act of neglectfulness; an instance of negligence or carelessness.
5. n. Contempt; disregard; slight; neglect.
6. n. A kind of wig in fashion for morning dress about the middle of the eighteenth century.
7. n. Synonyms Heedlessness, inconsiderateness, thoughtlessness.
8. n. 1 and Negligence, Neglect, Remissness, Inattention, Inadvertence, Oversight, Indifference. As contrasted with neglect, negligence generally expresses the habit or trait, and neglect the act. Inadvertence and oversight expressly mean that there was no intention of neglect; indifference lies back of action in the failure to care, such failure being generally blameworthy. Remissness is careless neglect of duty. Inattention is a failure. generally culpable, to bring the mind to the subject. See neglect, n. t, and negligent.

Wiktionary

1. n. The state of being negligent.
2. n. law, singular only The tort whereby a duty of reasonable care was breached, causing damage: any conduct short of intentional or reckless action that falls below the legal standard for preventing unreasonable injury.
3. n. law, uncountable The breach of a duty of care: the failure to exercise a standard of care that a reasonable person would have in a similar situation.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The quality or state of being negligent; lack of due diligence or care; omission of duty; habitual neglect; heedlessness.
2. n. An act or instance of negligence or carelessness.
3. n. (Law) The omission of the care usual under the circumstances, being convertible with the Roman culpa. A specialist is bound to higher skill and diligence in his specialty than one who is not a specialist, and liability for negligence varies acordingly.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. failure to act with the prudence that a reasonable person would exercise under the same circumstances
2. n. the trait of neglecting responsibilities and lacking concern