Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The state or quality of being negligent.
  • noun A negligent act or a failure to act.
  • noun Failure to use the degree of care appropriate to the circumstances, resulting in an unintended injury to another.
  • noun An act or omission showing such lack of care.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun 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.
  • noun 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.
  • noun Lack of attention to niceties or conventionalities, especially of dress, manner, or style; disregard of appearances; easy indifference of manner.
  • noun An act of neglectfulness; an instance of negligence or carelessness.
  • noun Contempt; disregard; slight; neglect.
  • noun A kind of wig in fashion for morning dress about the middle of the eighteenth century.
  • noun Synonyms Heedlessness, inconsiderateness, thoughtlessness.
  • noun 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.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The quality or state of being negligent; lack of due diligence or care; omission of duty; habitual neglect; heedlessness.
  • noun An act or instance of negligence or carelessness.
  • noun (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.
  • noun See under Contributory.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The state of being negligent.
  • noun 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.
  • noun 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.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun failure to act with the prudence that a reasonable person would exercise under the same circumstances
  • noun the trait of neglecting responsibilities and lacking concern

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • But the general idea here, when you hear the term negligence is a lack of care, a lack of reasonable behavior on the part of the owners here.

    CNN Transcript Sep 13, 2005 2005

  • Retired marine General Tony Zinni says in the lead up to the war, he witnessed what he called negligence, irresponsibility, lying, incompetence and corruption.

    CNN Transcript May 26, 2004 2004

  • The injured ANP workers criticised what they called negligence of police and security personnel deployed at the function and termed the incident a security lapse.

    Planet Malaysia KNizam 2010

  • Mourning residents are indignant over what they call negligence on the part of the club's management, which President Dmitry Medvedev also criticized in a nationally televised videoconference on Saturday.

    KansasCity.com: Front Page 2009

  • Mourning residents are indignant over what they call negligence on the part of the club's management, which President Dmitry Medvedev also criticized in a nationally televised videoconference on Saturday.

    KansasCity.com: Front Page 2009

  • In Pikine traffic on a main road was blocked for hours on 30 August as youths burned tyres, protesting what they called negligence on the part of the government.

    YubaNet.com 2009

  • Mourning residents are indignant over what they call negligence on the part of the club's management, which President Dmitry Medvedev also criticized in a nationally televised videoconference on Saturday.

    KansasCity.com: Front Page 2009

  • The Bamforth's filed suit for what they call negligence on the zoo's part.

    unknown title 2009

  • Mourning residents are indignant over what they call negligence on the part of the club's management, which President Dmitry Medvedev also criticized in a nationally televised videoconference on Saturday.

    TODAY'S ZAMAN :: News 2009

  • Mourning residents are indignant over what they call negligence on the part of the club's management, which President Dmitry Medvedev also criticized in a nationally televised videoconference on Saturday.

    KansasCity.com: Front Page 2009

Comments

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  • Boon of lawyers and bane of society.

    September 18, 2007

  • I wonder what is the connection between this word and negligee?

    September 18, 2007

  • A negligee is the party who's being treated negligently? ;-)

    Seriously, I think they come from the same basic root. I think negligee originally referred to loose, informal (thus careless or "negligent") attire.

    September 18, 2007

  • Many thanks for your helpful but completely madeupical etymology. ;-)

    September 18, 2007

  • But you still reign supreme as King of All Madeupical Etymologies.

    September 18, 2007

  • Nancy was negligent in nipping the netting of her negligee on the nightstand near her narrow bed.

    September 18, 2007

  • Nonsense!

    September 19, 2007

  • Never!

    September 19, 2007

  • O, those net-nipping nancies!

    September 19, 2007

  • Hey! Who you callin' a nancy? ;->

    September 19, 2007

  • No, reesetee is right :)

    negligee: literally, ‘given little thought or attention’

    September 19, 2007

  • *triumphant*

    September 19, 2007

  • Nyah nyaaahh!!

    September 19, 2007