Negligence definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (14)

American Heritage Dictionary (3)

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

Century Dictionary (8)

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. I trow men wolde deme it necligence If I foryete to telle the dispence Of Theseus. Chaucer, Knight's Tale (ed. Morris), l. 1023. Traitor, thy lif lost and goo! By thy neclygens my moder haue loste! Rom. of Partenay (E. E. T. S.), I. 4899. She let it drop by negligence, And, to the advantage, I, being here, took 't up. Shak., Othello, iii. 3. 311.
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.
Lack of attention to niceties or conventionalities, especially of dress, manner, or style; disregard of appearances; easy indifference of manner. Many there are who seem to slight all Care, And with a pleasing Negligence ensnare. Congreve, tr. of Ovid's Art of Love. Horace still charms with graceful negligence, And without method talks us into sense. Pope, Essay on Criticism, I. 653.

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I have reprimanded him for his negligence, although he did right in coming at once to me to report his failure. — The Albert Gate Mystery Being Further Adventures of Reginald Brett, Barrister Detective
In some people a heinous negligence, and in others a culpable apathy is evinced with respect to the principles their conduct is implanting. — Gathering Jewels The Secret of a Beautiful Life: In Memoriam of Mr. ; Mrs. James Knowles. Selected from Their Diaries.
"If I am detained here through their negligence, they must make the best excuse they can. — Cornelius O'Dowd Upon Men And Women And Other Things In General
Nor does this conception really weaken the motive to diligence; for if any one should slacken in his efforts to serve the Lord on the ground that a great degree of negligence, although it may diminish his reward, does not imperil his safety, this very thing would conclusively prove that he has no part in Christ. — The Parables of Our Lord
It fits our very natures Some one has said: "It is a race between negligence and ignorance as to which can make the more trouble Many a young man is being kept down by what probably seems a small thing to him--negligence, lack of accuracy. — Pushing to the Front

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carelessness · neglect · cowardice · indolence · inattention · dishonesty · incompetence · ingratitude · levity · indifference · disobedience · injustice

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (1)

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from Middle English negligence, necligence, neclygens, from Old French negligence, French négligence = Spanish Pg, negligencia = it. negligenzia, negligenza, from Latin neglegentia, neclegentia, carelessness, heedlessness, from neglegen (t-)s, careless, negligent: see negligent.

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