- neglect
- neglect vb Neglect, omit, disregard, ignore, overlook, slight, forget are comparable when they mean to pass over something without giving it due or sufficient attention.Neglect usually implies intentional or unintentional failure to give full or proper attention, especially to something one is doing (as a task) or should do (as a duty) or to someone who has a claim upon one's care or attention{
he was changing into his dress clothes .... He had neglected to hang them up the night before, and for once they were be-draggled— Mailer
}{he asked Mr. Powell with some brusqueness if the chief mate had neglected to instruct him that the captain was to be found on the port side— Conrad
}{neglect his family
}Omit implies a leaving out of something which forms a part of a whole{omit two stanzas of a hymn
}{got up late and omitted breakfast
}or a neglecting entirely through oversight, inattention, or absorption of an important detail, opportunity, or aspect{Constance remembered small possessions of her own which she had omitted to remove from the cutting-out room— Bennett
}Disregard usually implies voluntary, sometimes deliberate, inattention; the term may or may not imply justifiable neglect{disregard petty annoyances
}{disregard an unimportant piece of evidence
}{she persists in disregarding the wishes of her mother
}{nearly all the humane alleviations of brutal violence, introduced and practised in the days when professional armies fought for a dynasty or for a point of honor, were disregarded— Inge
}{flouting convention and disregarding his own clerical position— Handlin
}Ignore usually implies either an intention to disregard or a failure to regard something more or less obvious; it may even suggest a deliberate closing of the eyes to what one does not wish to recognize{to those who agree with me I am uttering commonplaces and to those who disagree I am ignoring the necessary foundations of thought— Justice Holmes
}{its mathematics approaches mysticism and its theory contains certain impossibilities which are ignored in practice— Theodore Sturgeon
}{by tacit agreement they ignored the remarks and insinuations of their acquaintances— D. H. Lawrence
}Overlook implies an omitting or disregarding, sometimes through intention but more often through haste, or lack of care{overlook an item in an account
}{it is the practice of good nature to overlook the faults which have already, by the consequences, punished the delinquent— Johnson
}{winced when he heard so young a man call him by nickname, but he overlooked this also in light of what had happened— Purdy
}Slight may imply neglect, omission, or disregard, but it also usually implies a contemptuous or an arrogant attitude that makes one undervalue a thing's importance, treat a person disdainfully, or be neglectful in performance of a task or duty{nothing in the service was slighted, every phrase and gesture had its full value— Cat her
}{I have been slighted, tricked, threatened, insulted, made ill . . . but I am justified— H. G. Wells
}Forget (compare FORGETFUL) often retains in this relation the implication of losing the memory of something or someone, so that when it implies neglect, it usually carries a suggestion of willful ignoring or of a failure to impress the thing neglected upon one's mind{I shall not be surprised to be neglected and forgot— Nelson
}{still, he told Hannah to get the boy better clothes—though he forgot to give her any money for the purpose— Deland
}{it was—well, until yesterday—all but forgotten—put out of mind, I mean-de la Mare
}Antonyms: cherishContrasted words: *appreciate, value, prize, treasure: *nurse, nurture, foster, cultivateneglect n1 *failure, default, miscarriage, derelictionAnalogous words: omitting or omission, disregarding or disregard, ignoring, slighting, forgetting, overlooking (see corresponding verbs at NEGLECT): forgetfulness, obliviousness (see adjectives at FORGETFUL)2 *negligenceAnalogous words: neglecting, omitting or omission, disregarding or disregard, ignoring, slighting, forgetting, overlooking (see corresponding verbs at NEGLECT)
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
