Definitions

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

  • adjective Given to or characterized by neglect, especially habitual neglect.
  • adjective Law Acting with or done through negligence.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Characterized by negligence or by neglectful habits; neglectful; careless; heedless; apt or accustomed to omit what ought to be done, or to do it in a careless or heedless manner: followed by of when the object of the negligence is specified: as, a negligent man; a man negligent of his duties.
  • Indicative of easy indifference or of disregard of conventionalities.
  • Synonyms Negligent, Neglectful, Remiss, Heedless, Thoughtless. inattentive, regardless, indifferent, slack. Of the first five words, remiss is the weakest; it especially applies to failure to attend to what is considered duty. Negligent is generally applied to inattention to things, neglectful to inattention to persons. Neglectful, by derivation, is stronger than negligent, but the difference is really small. Heedless, thoughtless, etc., indicate lack of heed, care, attention, thought, etc., where they are needed or due. All these words may apply to a particular occasion of failure, or indicate a habit or a trait of character; as, he is very heedless. See neglect, v., and negligence.

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

  • adjective Apt to neglect; customarily neglectful; characterized by negligence; careless; heedless; culpably careless; showing lack of attention.

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

  • adjective Careless, without appropriate or sufficient attention.
  • adjective law Culpable due to negligence.

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

  • adjective characterized by neglect and undue lack of concern

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin neglegēns, neglegent-, present participle of neglegere, to neglect; see neglect.]

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